The Dallas police chief and parents of the assassin have something in common
Jul 12, 2016, 5:35 AM | Updated: 1:12 pm
As Dallas investigators try to figure out what else gunman Micah Johnson may have been planning, his parents, James and Delphine Johnson, spoke to “The Blaze.”
“I love my son with all my heart. I hate what he did,” James Johnson said.
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Micah had spent time as a soldier in Afghanistan, and his mother says it changed him.
“The military was not what Micah thought it would be,” Delphine Johnson explained. “He was very disappointed, very disappointed.”
Part of the investigation will involve determining what, if anything, Johnson’s parents knew about what he was planning.
The man heading that investigation is Chief David Brown and has been the face of the Dallas Police department through this ordeal. He appealed to people who distrust the police to try to understand some of the pressure his officers are under.
“Every societal failure, we put it off on the cops to solve. Not enough mental health funding, let the cop(s) handle it…,” he said.
CBS correspondent Manuel Bojorquez says Chief Brown is one man who knows this issue from both sides of the badge. His patrol partner was killed in the line of duty in 1988, according to Bojorquez. In 2010, his mentally ill son shot and killed a man and a police officer, before police killed him.
Dallas officer Bervin Smith has known Brown for 20 years and says his past hardships have strengthened his resolve to do the job.
“And to persevere through that and stay on point and stick to his goals, being popular, unpopular, and doing what he thinks is right to help these citizens of Dallas — I think that’s just huge, man,” Smith said. “It speaks to his character, I believe.”
If there is one stroke of good luck here, it would be that Dallas has a police chief by the name of David Brown.
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