President Obama To Speak At Dallas Memorial Service

Portraits of the five murdered Dallas police officers sit in front city hall.
Portraits of the five murdered Dallas police officers sit in front city hall. Tony Gutierrez/AP
Portraits of the five murdered Dallas police officers sit in front city hall.
Portraits of the five murdered Dallas police officers sit in front city hall. Tony Gutierrez/AP

President Obama To Speak At Dallas Memorial Service

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President Obama will speak at an interfaith memorial service this afternoon for the five police officers murdered in Dallas last week. The Vice President and First Lady are also attending the service, as is former President George W. Bush and former First Lady Laura Bush.

The memorial service is being held at the Morton H. Meyerson Symphony Center music hall in downtown Dallas, about a mile from where the police officers were gunned down. It is scheduled to begin at 1:40 p.m. E.T.

The suspected killer, Micah Xavier Johnson, “stated he wanted to kill white people, especially white officers,” Dallas Police Chief David Brown said Friday. Johnson was killed with a bomb after a standoff with police following the shooting. Brown has called for calm and unity in the wake of the attack.

The victims, four of whom served with the Dallas Police Department and a fifth who served the Dallas Area Rapid Transit, ranged in age from 32 to 55 years old. They were identified as Brent Thompson, Patrick Zamarripa, Michael Krol, Lorne Ahrens, and Michael Smith. You can read more about their lives here.

On the flight to Dallas from Washington, D.C., the President placed telephone calls to family members of Alton Sterling and Philando Castile, both of whom were killed by police officers last week, to express his condolences for the death of their loved ones.

We will update this story with further information after the Memorial Service concludes.

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