President Obama speaks at memorial for slain Dallas police

President Barack Obama visits Dallas on Tuesday to address a memorial service for five police officers killed at a protest against police violence, as he seeks to mend divisions inflamed by the deadliest day for U.S. law enforcement in almost 15 years.

Former U.S. Army Reserve soldier Micah Johnson, 25, gunned down the officers in an ambush on Thursday after expressing anger over recent police killings of black people. Johnson then was killed by an explosive-laden robot sent in by police.

Johnson, who was black, opened fire during a march protesting the police shootings last week of two black men in Baton Rouge, Louisiana and outside St. Paul, Minnesota, the latest in a string of high-profile killings that have stirred a deepest debate on race and justice in America.

Johnson had said he wanted to “kill white people,” particularly police, according to a police account of their unsuccessful negotiations with him.

Obama has to twin sympathy over the Dallas attack and for law enforcement officers around the country with support for black Americans who say police are too quick to use violence against them. After the deaths of Alton Sterling in Louisiana and Philando Castile in Minnesota at the hands of police last week, Obama said a significant number of Americans believe they are treated differently because of the color of their skin.

House of Representatives Democratic leader Nancy Pelosi and Republican Senator Ted Cruz of Texas, who has been a fierce critic of Obama’s policies, joined the president on Air Force One on the flight to Dallas, the White House said. (Reuters)

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