To end the Dallas shooting spree, police used a robot to kill for the first time

By Will Fulton Updated July 8, 2016

dallas police department lethal robot shooting death v3 — Dallas police used a bomb-disposal bot like this one, shown here operated by Maryland State Fire Marshals, to carry a bomb next to the Dallas shooting suspect and detonate it, killing him. Lee Cannon/Flickr

Bringing bloody resolution to a standoff with the suspected shooter in Thursday’s horrific sniper attack on police at a Black Lives Matter protest, Dallas Police cornered and killed the suspect in a parking garage with an explosive delivered by a bomb-disposal robot. The AP quotes robotics expert Peter W. Singer at the New America Foundation as saying that, to his knowledge, this is the first instance in the United States of police killing someone with a robot.

In a statement given on Friday, Police Chief David Brown said that the robot was deployed after several hours of failed negotiations and an exchange of fire at the El Centro College parking structure where the suspect was found. “We saw no other option but to use our bomb robot and place a device on its extension for it to detonate where the suspect was,” said Brown. “Other options would have exposed our officers to great danger. The suspect is deceased as a result of detonating the bomb.”

The suspect has been identified as 25-year-old Micah Johnson, a former Army reservist and Dallas-area resident with no criminal record, according to the Los Angles Times. No other suspects have been publicly identified, but authorities have suggested that two to four shooters were involved in the attack, which killed five police officers and injured seven more. Brown said that during negotiations with the police, Johnson apparently said explicitly that he was motivated by the recent police killings in Minnesota and Louisiana, and wanted to target police officers in retribution, “especially white officers.”

Singer confirmed on Twitter that this is indeed the first reported use of lethal robots by American police, although similar tactics have been deployed in Iraq by the United States military.

https://twitter.com/peterwsinger/status/751407875696787456

Bomb-disposal robots have become an integral tool for American police and military over the last several years, allowing for personnel to resolve many deadly situations without putting additional lives at risk. Many such robots are equipped with small explosives to pre-emptively detonate larger bombs, but it is not clear whether the explosive used in this case was one of those.

Topics

Former Digital Trends Contributor

Will Fulton is a New York-based writer and theater-maker. In 2011 he co-founded mythic theater company AntiMatter Collective…

Outdoors

The best portable power stations

EcoFlow DELTA 2 on table at campsite for quick charging.

Affordable and efficient portable power is a necessity these days, keeping our electronic devices operational while on the go. But there are literally dozens of options to choose from, making it abundantly difficult to decide which mobile charging solution is best for you. We've sorted through countless portable power options and came up with six of the best portable power stations to keep your smartphones, tablets, laptops, and other gadgets functioning while living off the grid.
The best overall: Jackery Explorer 1000

Jackery has been a mainstay in the portable power market for several years, and today, the company continues to set the standard. With three AC outlets, two USB-A, and two USB-C plugs, you'll have plenty of options for keeping your gadgets charged.

Emerging Tech

CES 2023: HD Hyundai’s Avikus is an A.I. for autonomous boat and marine navigation

Demonstration of NeuBoat level 2 autonomous navigation system at the Fort Lauderdale International Boat Show

This content was produced in partnership with HD Hyundai.
Autonomous vehicle navigation technology is certainly nothing new and has been in the works for the better part of a decade at this point. But one of the most common forms we see and hear about is the type used to control steering in road-based vehicles. That's not the only place where technology can make a huge difference. Autonomous driving systems can offer incredible benefits to boats and marine vehicles, too, which is precisely why HD Hyundai has unveiled its Avikus AI technology -- for marine and watercraft vehicles.

More recently, HD Hyundai participated in the Fort Lauderdale International Boat Show, to demo its NeuBoat level 2 autonomous navigation system for recreational boats. The name mashes together the words "neuron" and "boat" and is quite fitting since the Avikus' A.I. navigation tech is a core component of the solution, it will handle self-recognition, real-time decisions, and controls when on the water. Of course, there are a lot of things happening behind the scenes with HD Hyundai's autonomous navigation solution, which we'll dive into below -- HD Hyundai will also be introducing more about the tech at CES 2023.

Computing

This AI cloned my voice using just three minutes of audio

acapela group voice cloning ad

There's a scene in Mission Impossible 3 that you might recall. In it, our hero Ethan Hunt (Tom Cruise) tackles the movie's villain, holds him at gunpoint, and forces him to read a bizarre series of sentences aloud.

"The pleasure of Busby's company is what I most enjoy," he reluctantly reads. "He put a tack on Miss Yancy's chair, and she called him a horrible boy. At the end of the month, he was flinging two kittens across the width of the room ..."