The gunman who killed five police officers in Dallas was "changed" by his experience in the US military, his mother has said.
Micah Johnson. Photo: AFP / Handout
Micah Johnson went from being an extrovert to a "hermit", Delphine Johnson told The Blaze website.
"The military was not what Micah thought it would be.
"He was very disappointed," she said.
Mr Johnson opened fire at a protest being held over the deaths of African Americans at the hands of police.
The demonstrations, echoed nationwide, followed the police killings of http://www.radionz.co.nz/news/world/308189/'you-shot-four-bullets-into-him,-sir' Philando Castile] in Minnesota and Alton Sterling in Louisiana.
Bomb-making material, rifles and a combat journal were found at the home of Johnson, who was himself killed.
"I don't know what to say to anybody to make anything better. I didn't see it coming," James Johnson, his father, told the website.
"I love my son with all my heart. I hate what he did."
Dallas Police Chief David Brown at a news conference in Texas, 11 July. Photo: AFP
Dallas police chief David Brown said all of his officers are on edge after the events, and his family has received death threats.
Mr Johnson was killed by a robot bomb during a stand-off with 13 police officers.
Mr Brown said killing Mr Johnson was "not an ethical dilemma", and he would do it again to protect his officers.
Mr Brown said the events would not discourage the department, which has seen 12 consecutive years of crime reduction.
"We're going to turn over every rock" to make sure Johnson was the only person planning the attack, he said, and that the department is following "any and all leads".
Mr Brown suggested angry young black people in the US join their local police departments and try to become "part of the solution".
"We're hiring.
"Get off the protest line and put in an application," he said.
US presidential candidates comment
Republican presumptive presidential nominee Donald Trump, speaking at a campaign event on Monday, mentioned the events in Dallas and said it's "time for hostility against police and all law enforcement to end immediately".
"I am the law-and-order candidate," he said.
Presumptive Democratic presidential nominee Hillary Clinton, speaking last week at the Emanuel AME church where nine worshippers were killed last summer, said bias exists in some police departments.
-BBC
