Strong similarities to attack on Dallas police one year ago

[suffragette]

I was reading an article about the ramifications of the use of a robot to kill the suspect in yesterday's shootings and saw this sentence:

https://www.theguardian.com/technology/2016/jul/08/police-bomb-robot-explosive-killed-suspect-dallas

Similar robots were used in the DPD’s showdown with a gunman who assaulted the department’s headquarters with guns and bombs almost exactly a year ago.

The link embedded in the above sentence led to this article from last year.


Saturday 13 June 2015 20.36 BST Last modified on Saturday 13 June 2015 23.07 BST


https://www.theguardian.com/us-news/2015/jun/13/dallas-police-headquarters-shooting-dead

Dallas police attack: gunman confirmed dead hours after opening fire on HQ
Suspect who launched early-morning attack, which included planting bombs, was shot by police sniper after fleeing in armoured van

Dallas police on Saturday confirmed the death of a man suspected of launching an armed assault on the city’s police headquarters and leading officers on a chase that ended with an hours-long standoff in a suburban fast food restaurant’s parking lot.

The headquarters building was riddled by bullets in the attack, which happened at around 12.30am local time on Saturday morning. Police said they discovered multiple suspicious packages planted at the scene, one containing pipe bombs that detonated after being picked up by an anti-explosives robot, causing damage to cars.

~~~

Later on Saturday police said the vehicle was on fire, and ammunition rounds were going off inside it. Police said in a Twitter post that the fire started when they used robots to clear the van of weapons, including pipe bombs.

Initial reports suggested there were as many as four suspects but officials said they now believed that a lone suspect took shots from multiple locations. Brown declined to confirm the suspect’s identity.

Some of the points stand out as similar:

- Yesterday's attack occurred almost one year after the previous one

- The combination of guns and bombs. We don't yet know if bombs were planted in Dallas, but after last year the threat of that is notable. There is more info in last year's article about the bombs that were discovered last year.

- There were initially four suspects last year as well.



I'm not sure what to make of this yet. But it seems too similar to be coincidental.

One difference is the attacker last year was white.

I don't have cable, so I don't know if cable news is discussing the attack from last year and drawing comparisons yet. I think it does bear examining.

[suffragette]

1. And now they are reporting he was the "sole gunman."