Police headquarters near where a bomb was found. USA Today/WFAA.
A gunman went on a shooting spree in Dallas Texas armed with explosives and a specially armored van. USA Today. The suspect opened fire at the police headquarters and planted explosives nearby. After a gunfight and pursuit, the van was disable by police, who fired a .50 caliber rifle at it. The suspect has been shot by police snipers, though it is unknown if he was alive or dead. The suspect complained about having his child taken away from him before he cut off negotiations. It is unclear at this point if he acted alone because several witnesses claimed to have seen others with him. Unconfirmed reports name the suspect as James Boulware, who was arrested in 2013 after he had gathered weapons and threatened to go on a shooting spree.
Here are some videos from the scene.
My Comment:
I've been following this story on Twitter all night and it was pretty crazy. Mostly because Twitter was the only way I could fallow it. CNN didn't pick this story up until 4:00 AM central, and they were still one of the first to cover it. You would think a crazy guy driving an armored van and shooting it out with the cops would make the news quicker then that, but apparently everyone was taking a nap.
I'm guessing the reports of other suspects are just the typical misinformation that comes out when one of these things happens. My guess is that this guy worked alone. If he did had help, it makes zero sense that they weren't in the van with him. Anything is possible, but after hearing the same thing in just about every mass shooting I have followed since starting this blog, I'm guessing the reports were wrong.
It's too soon to speculate why this happened or what the motivations could have been, but it seems like there was some kind of custody dispute with the suspect, James Boulware. That's not surprising to me at all. If there is anything that could drive someone to commit an act like this, a custody dispute could do it. Men tend to get screwed over in family court, but in this case it was probably justified. I don't think it is controversial to say that a guy that everyone was afraid would go on a rampage probably shouldn't keep his kids. I haven't heard of any other possible motive as of yet, other then that Boulware didn't want to be called a terrorist. If that was his motivation, it was a funny way of proving his point.
As for the attack itself, it pretty much failed completely. I didn't hear of anyone getting hurt or killed except the suspect. None of his explosives hurt anyone either. There was some property damage but if this was supposed to send a message, the only message it sent is that the suspect was a terrible shot. Don't get me wrong, I am glad he failed, but it takes a lot to fail this completely.
From the videos it sounded like he was firing a high powered rifle rapidly. My guess was it was a semi-auto. In the videos it sounded like someone pulling the trigger fast, not holding it down. The fast rate of fire may have something to do with why he failed to hit anything. Guns usually work better when you take the time to aim. Once again, I'm glad this guy was a moron who didn't know what he was doing.
I've noticed people on Twitter asking why he was able to buy a van that was up armored. There is no law against it, and I don't believe that there should be. After all, police were able to disable it with a .50 caliber rifle. Such rifles are expensive yes, but most departments have them and if they don't they could easily buy one in the states that they are legal. Any legislation banning modifications of vehicles because of this incident would be a huge overreaction. Same goes for any new gun control, but that goes without saying.
I've also heard a lot of nonsense on Twitter as well. Like how this guy was treated differently because he was white. The cops sure didn't seem to go easy on him when they shot him, but never mind that. I've also seen people try to make this about the "war on police". I'm a bit more sympathetic to that argument but at this point it is impossible to tell what this guys motives are right now. It's also too early to call him a terrorist because we don't know if this was a political attack or just a guy off his rocker. What I do know is that you can't generalize anyone from this incident. The vast majority of people, regardless of race, gender or religion, don't buy an up armored van, grab a rifle and some bombs and then go on a shooting spree. Stop trying to pigeonhole this outlying case as an argument that everyone you don't like is just minutes away from going on a spree.
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