The suspect in the attack on Dallas police headquarters had a record of domestic violence and a history of custody issues, but authorities have found nothing in his past to indicate he would target police, Chief David Brown said Saturday.
Authorities said the gunman identified himself as James Boulware, but said they have not confirmed his identity.
Boulware’s father, however, told CNN that police told him that James was killed during the standoff that followed the shooting.
Jim Boulware said he thought his son would have directed his anger not at police but at his mother, who was granted custody of James Boulware’s son in April.
The suspect also made threats against judges involved in his family violence cases, Brown said. He ranted during the attack that police had labeled him a terrorist, but Brown said, “right now we don’t have any nexus to terrorism with this individual” and that he was not on any terrorism watch list.
After attacking the headquarters with a barrage of gunfire, the man led police on a chase to a Dallas suburb that ended with officers shooting him in his parked van.
No one else was hurt in the attack.
Brown said police found that the suspect had a record of domestic violence. He said the suspect called 911 and made a long rant in which he said police had caused him to lose custody of his child.
“There were three family violence cases against this suspect and there apparently was some type of custody issue as a result of these family violence incidents involving this suspect,” he said.
“There had been some expressions of threats toward the judges in these family violence cases,” he said.
A news report from 2013 in described Boulware’s capture in Lamar County after he threatened to go on a shooting spree. Authorities had pursued Boulware on an assault warrant after he allegedly choked a family member with both hands at her home, the newspaper reported.
An article in a Paris, Texas, newspaper about the same incident said Boulware had allegedly made threats against family, schools and churches. Area schools were placed on alert as a result.
