We spoke to the Dallas, TX community about how they’re responding to the shooting

Just before 9pm on Thursday night, a sniper attack erupted on Dallas police officers. The ambush occurred at the end of a protest route responding to the shootings of two black men by police officers in Minnesota and Louisiana earlier in the week. The Dallas attack injured two civilians and 11 police officers, five of whom died from their injuries.

Police pursuit of the suspects ran well into the night and early morning hours. A standoff with one of the suspects, an armed sniper who made bomb threats, concluded when the suspect, Micah Xavier Johnson, was killed by a police-operated robot that detonated explosives where Johnson was located.

As Friday dawned on the Texas city, the Dallas community attempted to process the events from the night before. Many gathered at a prayer service held at Thanks-Giving Square, an assembly requested by Dallas Mayor Mike Rawlings.

Citizens of Dallas and its surrounding communities shared their sentiments on the events that have transpired during the past 24 hours.

Maggie Rener, Dallas

“I’ve lived in Dallas for about 15 years, and you see things happen in New York, you see things happen in Minnesota, in Louisiana, so to think that it happens a mile down from where you live, it’s sort of like living in a Twilight Zone. You don’t think that that would happen here, because you feel safe, and you respect the DPD. And you respect everyone around you and everyone’s skin color, and you just don’t expect it.

“I think [current tensions are] definitely obviously an issue, I think a policy issue. Unfortunately, racism is still alive and well here, and I don’t know the solution, but just love and prayer.”

Sandra Smith, Dallas native visiting from Los Angeles, CA

“I think that I’m inherently a fair person. The problem is that as a community, as a black community, we don’t actively participate in the process consistently. And as a result of that, we are always jumping in and falling out, jumping in and falling out, and that puts us at a disadvantage. Then the resentments, and all the things we feel about the injustices we see happening, we bottle it up, bottle it up, until then something like this happens, and a person who is angry from five, six, seven years ago decided today is the day I am going to kill five innocent police officers.

“So that’s the problem that I feel we just aren’t communicating. When we all see what we believe to be police injustice, and the system that they are held accountable by does not reprimand or punish them, we feel like there’s no justice. And any time you have people living under a state of constant injustice, at some point, it’s going to pop.”

Sean Smith, Dallas/Fort Worth native

“I was born in Fort Worth. I consider Dallas a second home – my family and friends are here. I’m also a brown person in America. I’m devastated for the lives lost last night and I was devastated for the lives lost the day before that and the day before that and the years before that. Today the majority is posting, printing, saying all lives matter. Where were you yesterday? Where were you when black lives were supposed to matter?”

Chelsea Vaughn, 23, Dallas

“I think any act of violence like that is typically just really sad and it makes citizens sad, and it should make citizens sad. I think that it should make us not just sad, but driven to hope and driven to motivations of love rather than fear.

“I think any time it’s in your own city, it’s unexpected. But I definitely think there are tensions, and the tensions have been here for a long, long time. And I think ultimately Dallas has seen so many strides of unity be made in the church. I work for a Christian non-profit, and feel like we have seen a lot of unity happen, so though devastating, still feeling it’s landing on soil that’s ready for moments like Thanks-Giving Square, where we can come together and pray together.”

Cameron Griffin, 21, Allen

“I wasn’t necessarily surprised to be honest, because I know this country is going into a dark direction. At the same time, I was very remorseful and felt a little bit of fear, a bit of like confusion. I felt a little bit of passion – because I’m a Christian, I believe that God is going to save this country and things are going to turn around. I think it’s not as much a political issue or economic issue as much as it is a spiritual issue.”

Temi Abioye, 24, Dallas

“I think everyone – because my friend group is very diverse – immediately we just come together by default. So that’s the thing, I think everyone really wanted to unite and come together and be together.”

Steven Shirley, Dallas

“We have community leaders in Dallas with different Christian organizations, and we do a lot of racial building with the community, encouraging reaching out to different ethnic groups.

“For the last three or four years, things have been building, and it died down and we kind of pulled back. And it’s still encouraged more of this, of coming together and talking and learning, to live together and love one another. Even from last year, from Ferguson, I wish we had stayed more in that, knowing that we don’t want it to continue, to happen across our nation. So I think this is a big one, but I think we have turned a corner, and saying yes, we’ve got to be different, we’ve got to change.

“I think Dallas will set the road map for this with the churches, with the athletes, with the schools, with the community, and Dallas will be a path. The police department and Mayor Rawlings – I think they have done a remarkable job and we can learn leadership from them.”

Brandon Freeman, 34, Dallas (left) and Chase Ridge, 31, Dallas (right)

Brandon: “I believe that when black people see injustice anywhere, they are tense. And that’s any race. If you see your people done wrong, you’re naturally tense. So when you talk about a rally for Black Lives Matter, it was a peaceful protest, but at the same time, it was people who had misguided anger, misguided frustration. And what happened was horrible, but it was a cry out. You know, ‘We want justice, and so since we’re not getting it, we take matters into our own hands.’ And with that being said, I believe that you never say ‘Oh, this was going to happen,’ but at the same time, it was the perfect breeding ground for something like this to transpire.

“I’m extremely optimistic, and I am proud of the way our city has handled this. When you think about Ferguson, when you think about all of these other places and the things that happened surrounding it, we didn’t have that. We didn’t have people burning places, we didn’t have none of that. What we did have was a black police chief and a white mayor coming together to heal our city, and it happened fast.

“And as a result, we are here at something like this because the mayor called people together to pray for the city. And that’s powerful. So I’m optimistic that we had an opportunity nationally to set the stage of how to really respond to such crisis.”

Chase: “It’s just a lack of good communication. Everybody kind of has their opinion and their view. We are all raised with our own cultural experiences, our own racial experiences. And so everybody has a grandfather, or a great grandmother, or an uncle, or an aunt who has their opinion about certain races and different things, but what I’ve found is that you have to be willing to establish your own view. And that doesn’t happen by doing that from afar.

“One of the reasons I came out today was because I wanted to establish my own view, I wanted to be a part. I think that the downfall of all of this racial tension is the fact that people won’t come together to be able to learn another culture.”

Richmond Punch, Dallas

“Can music help? Music can do a whole heck of a lot. When I’m down here, there are reports of less crime. Do you know what the most important thing about the music they were playing? They played American songs, but they also played hymns. Songs literally of peace. America the Beautiful, Victory in Jesus, It Is Well with My Soul. I hope that people will let these songs resound all over the United States, because it is needed.

“Street musicians, we need you, all across the United States. Let your voice be heard. Let your voice be heard. You have a voice. People are not just watching you because it is some kind of a show. As they said on BET, it’s not just some kind of a magic, it stands for a purpose and it can be a part of that great change that our country needs.”

Max Saucedo, Arlington, Radio DJ for Dallas station 870 AM KFJZ

“You know, this morning was very hard on air. We have a program – we pre-prepared what we were about to say on the air. And we were on the air already, and we were trying to preach about joy, having joy in your heart and just be happy and all that. And we were talking about that on the air, and I felt very weird at the beginning when we were talking about this situation, and then about joy and how to combine these two things. Joy and being thankful to God.

“And you see a situation like this and you say, ‘How are you going to be thankful for something that is basically bad?’ First, thanks for the life, because you and me, we are here standing and we are talking and we are life. We are thankful for the people that weren’t hurt. But also we pray for every single family.”

Diannel Coleman, 47, Dallas

“To wake up and to have babies, children – not grownups, they can handle it. To know that daddy might not come home, or mama might not come home. And how do we explain that to them? Because they don’t understand. Their number one question is, ‘What did they do?’ It’s going to take a lot of healing, especially with the families. My heart goes out. Because some of them were innocent, probably never hurt nobody. Innocents. So the killing, the people who did it? What good did it come to you? Still got to answer to God on Judgment Day, because you took innocent lives, because you’re mad.

“It’s like one bad apple spoils the whole bunch. The good have to suffer with the bad. You know a good cop, who does good, and follows the rules and regulations of being a police officer. And then you got the ones that are crooked. You know, it’s hard.”

Natasha Jones, 29, Dallas

“I feel like it was inevitable. Right is right and wrong is wrong at the end of the day. Regardless of color, race, creed, religion, whatever. It was inevitable. Somebody was going to feel like they had to take it into their own hands. Unfortunately, they took lives with them. But it’s very disconcerting and it’s very scary, that whoever it was felt like they had to take it into their own hands, because the justice system did not do right by the people. So that’s why I say it was inevitable, because something is going to happen. You back an animal into the corner long enough, its going to come out swinging, biting and scratching. It’s very sad.”