A man in a mask, combat gear and glasses was shot and killed Monday morning in downtown Dallas after he opened fire with an assault rifle outside the Earle Cabell Federal Building. No one else was injured.
[Here is video of the suspect engaging with police officers before running into a parking lot:]
ACTIVE SHOOTER: A gunman who opened fire outside a courthouse in Dallas did not survive after police officers engaged in a shootout, with video shot from above showing gunshots exchanged before the suspect, 22-year-old Brian Clyde, fled into a parking lot. https://t.co/ezRA2BtTte pic.twitter.com/dzVzLhZu9H
— World News Tonight (@ABCWorldNews) June 17, 2019
FBI Special Agent in Charge Matthew DeSarno identified the shooter as Brian Isaack Clyde, 22 at a news conference on a street corner near the federal building. Clyde died at the scene and was taken to Baylor University Medical Center, after police responded to an active shooter call, officials said.
DMN staff photographer @TomFoxPhoto captured this image shortly before a gunman opened fire on the Earle Cabell Federal Building Monday morning in downtown Dallas. Fox was waiting to enter the building to cover a trial when the attack took place. https://t.co/y8fWYYuKjs pic.twitter.com/fE1kFlEy9j
— Dallas Morning News (@dallasnews) June 17, 2019
Neither DeSarno nor Erin Nealy Cox, U.S. Attorney for the Northern District of Texas, gave any indication why Clyde would target the federal building.
Dallas Morning News photographer Tom Fox witnessed the shooter fire outside the building on Jackson Street and took photos as the shooting occurred. Fox said the gunman fired from the parking lot across the street toward Fox, a security guard, a woman walking a golden retriever and a man who hadn’t tied his tie yet.
The window panes in the revolving door and two side doors at one entrance were broken afterward. It is unclear if the door was shot by the shooter or law enforcement.
Photos taken by Fox shows law enforcement around Clyde, who is lying on the ground in a parking lot without a shirt. The shooter had a red heart tattoo with a black drawing inside, possibly of an animal, on his left arm.
Fox, who was questioned by the FBI, said he was outside the building when a man in a mask parked on the corner of Jackson and Griffin streets. The masked man ran and then stopped in the street to pick something off the ground.
The man then began shooting at the courthouse and cracked the glass of the door, Fox said. Inside the building security pushed everyone down to the ground.
The federal building is likely to remain on lockdown for the rest of the day. The building houses federal courts, the U.S. Attorney’s office for the Northern District of Texas, a passport office and U.S. Marshals Services.
The shooting is a block from the July 7, 2016 ambush where five police officers — four Dallas police officer and a Dallas Area Rapid Transit officer — were killed by a gunman. Nearby El Centro College was placed on lockdown. During the ambush, that shooter entered the school and fired from a window at the fifth officer who was killed.
Dallas police detonated a suspicious device around 10:40 a.m. found in the vehicle Clyde drove to the courthouse. The blast was strong enough to shake several sapling trees blocks away. Police searched downtown for other possible devices. Many downtown buildings are on lockdown or evacuated. Several streets remain closed.
‘I just ran’
Ed Modla was working from home at SoCo Urban Lofts this morning when he heard at least 10 loud shots outside. He looked outside and saw the gunman running across Griffin Street.
“As soon as I saw the shooter I got the hell away from the window,” he said.
He took another peek from his third-floor window a few moments later and said he saw officers “zeroing in” on the suspect across the street.
Dallas police evacuated the apartment building around 10 a.m., going door-to-door to make sure everyone got out.
Judicial intern Thompson Du was waiting outside Monday morning after officials kept him from going inside. Du said his friends who were already nearby when the shooting occurred told him they heard shots for 45 seconds.
Don Miles heard 10-15 shots as he walked up to the Commerce Street entrance for his 9 a.m. appointment.
“I just ran,” Miles said.
Herman Turner, 50, took the day off work to run errands at the courthouse. He said he was on his way to get a cashier’s check when he saw the gunman run from the courthouse door near Main and Griffin streets, plant himself in the middle of the road and begin firing an assault rifle back at the building.
Prior courthouse shootings
Monday’s shooting wasn’t the first connected to a North Texas courthouse.
In January 2013, a masked gunman shot and killed Kaufman County prosecutor Mark Hasse in a courthouse parking lot in Kaufman. The gunman then went on to kill Kaufman County District Attorney Mike McLelland and his wife, Cynthia in their home over East weekend of that year.
The shooter, Eric Williams, remains on death row. He killed the DA and prosecutor in a revenge plot for prosecuting him for stealing county property. Williams wife, Kim, testified against him and is in prison for her role in the murders.
In January 1993, Hai Van Huynh opened fire in the hallway of the George L. Allen Sr. Courts Building in Dallas, fatally shooting his wife, Ly Dang, and wounding a bystander. He later died from a self-inflicted gunshot wound.
On July 1, 1992, George Lott opened fire inside the Tarrant County Courthouse, killing two lawyers, seriously wounding two appellate judges and grazing another attorney. He died by lethal injection two years later.
Lott had been indicted a few months earlier on aggravated sexual assault charges stemming from allegations that he had sexually abused his son at a motel in Peoria, Ill., according to police and court records. He was scheduled to be tried July 24 on the more serious of the charges, said prosecutor Jim Owens in Peoria, where the son lived.
Staff Writer Dave Tarrant contributed to this report.
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