San Jose

Oakland, San Jose Officers Ordered to Team Up Following Deadly Dallas Shootings

In the wake of the Dallas police shootings that left five officers dead and seven injured, the San Jose and Oakland police departments confirmed Friday that they are “immediately” ordering all officers to ride and patrol in pairs – a move echoed in other police departments nationwide.

"Our thoughts and prayers go out to everyone affected by this tragedy,” said Albert Morales, a San Jose police spokesman. “As a result, San Jose Police Chief Eddie Garcia ordered officers into two-officer patrols immediately." Typically, police officers patrol alone.

The Oakland Police Department, where headquarters were marred with anti-police graffiti, also ordered its rank-and-file officers to team up. Police chiefs in cities including Seattle, Las Vegas, Boston, Washington D.C., Los Angeles ordered their officers to do the same.

A spokesperson for the San Francisco Police Department said that the city wouldn't be pairing officers together due to staffing shortages, although officers on the ground were on high alert. 

The Dallas shootings broke out around 9 p.m. Thursday at an anti-police brutality protest that Black Lives Matter and other activists organized following the police shootings of Philando Castile, a black man in Minnesota whose death was broadcast on Facebook live by his girlfriend, and Alton Sterling, a black man in Louisiana who was gunned down while seemingly lying on the ground. Both shootings, which occurred less than 48 hours apart, are being investigated at a federal level and add to growing frustrations about police officers’ use of force across the country.

Activists, including some connected with Black Lives Matter, have since condemned the slaying of officers, instead urging followers to protest peacefully. Oakland's rally started peacefully on Thursday, but ended with some of the protesters shutting down a freeway, tagging police headquarters and smashing windows.

Close to 1,000 people attended the Dallas protest and were marching down the street when the shots rang out from a sniper taking aerial shots at officers, according to police. Following a stand-off that lasted through Friday morning, Dallas police said they had killed one of the suspects with a remote bomb and had another three suspects in custody. Officers said they are still investigating the connections between the suspects.

The shooter killed by the bomb has since been identified as Micah Xavier Johnson, a U.S. Army vet who said he was working alone and wanted to “kill white officers,” according to Dallas Police Chief David Brown, who vowed to get justice for his fallen officers.

“I'm not going to be satisfied until we've turned over every stone,” Brown said, regarding the continuing investigation. “We've got some level that this one suspect did do some of the shooting. But we're not satisfied that we've exhausted every lead. So if there's someone out there who's associated with this, we will find you, we will prosecute you, and we will bring you to justice."

NBC News and NBC Dallas-Fort Worth contributed to this reporting.

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