Dallas Stations Pivot From Protests to Police Shootings

Dallas’ local TV stations were already in place covering the protests last night when five police officers were shot and killed by snipers.

The protests that started peacefully against police violence turned deadly when gunmen killed four Dallas PD and one Dallas Area Rapid Transit policeman. Seven officers and two civilians were also injured. Three alleged suspects are in custody and one is dead after a standoff with police.

“This is a terrible blow to the city of Dallas,” said Dallas Mayor Mike Rawlings on this morning’s Today Show. “This is a terrible blow to the United States of America.”

All the stations went live shortly after 9 p.m. when it was still too early to say exactly what was happening on the ground. Below is an account of the reports that stood out within the first few minutes of going live.

Fox-owned KDFW started its 9 p.m. newscast with Alex Boyer at the protest.

“We saw the video. We were watching from Sky4 and the ground video,” anchor Steve Eager told viewers. “And suddenly people started scattering from the Belo Gardens in downtown Dallas.”

Boyer and the station cameraman showed viewers gripping live images of people crouching behind a sign. Boyer said he was ready to go live when “All of a sudden we started hearing what sounded to us like gunfire. Rapid gunfire. It was shot after shot after shot.” He said the gunshots had stopped within a minute of his report.

NBC-owned KXAS had an eyewitness tell them, “I didn’t see nobody else get shot but cops.” When a voice off camera asked if he was talking about the Dallas Police Department, he answered, “The PD. DPD. Yes.”

Here’s video of the eyewitness account from KXAS:

Here’s video from KXAS of the gunfire.

ABC affiliate WFAA went straight away to photojournalist Josh Steven who apologized for being out of breath but was able to tell viewers “We have shots fired. Officer down.” He also said the gunshots “Sounded like an AK-47 going off.”

When the station took him live, Steven was heading to a parking garage surrounded by police.

featured image – AP