Live Updates: 5 Officers Shot Dead at Dallas Police Brutality March

Five Dallas area police officers were shot dead killed, and seven wounded by a sniper who opened fire from a rooftop late Thursday evening as hundreds of demonstrators marched to protest this week's fatal shootings of two African-American men by police in Louisiana and Minnesota.

RELATED: 
10 Facts from History That Turn Gun Control Debate on Its Head

Key Facts So Far

- The shooting occurred as Black Lives Matter protesters were marching through downtown Dallas to protest continued police brutality against Black people in the U.S., specifically the death of Philando Castile who was killed after a police roadside stop in Minnesota on Wednesday.

- Castile’s death occurred a day after Alton Sterling, 37, was killed during an altercation with two white police officers. Both slayings were recorded on video.

- The sniper has been identified as 25-year-old Micah Xavier Johnson, a U.S. Army Reservist who has no criminal record nor any known ties to terrorist organizations.

- After an hourlong standoff at El Centro College where Johnson had been holed up, he was killed in somewhat peculiar circumstances: the police detonated a bomb via a robot.

- Johnson reportedly told police he was acting alone and not on behalf of any organization, according to Dallas Police Chief David O. Brown. But three more people remain in custody in connection with the shooting.

- Johnson had no criminal record but Dallas police have since found bomb making materials, ballistic vests, rifles and ammunition at his home.
-Police claim officers have since been targeted in Tennessee, Georgia and Missouri following the Dallas shootings.