The doors to El Centro College in downtown Dallas are finally opening up to faculty and staff Wednesday morning. Students return to class on Thursday.
On Tuesday, the community college’s Police Chief Joseph Hannigan took reporters through the area where the gunman was holed up – and where he was eventually killed early in the morning of July 8.
At about nine o’clock that night, Micah Johnson’s trail of terror began outside the college doors facing Lamar Street.
“His SUV was parked right outside these doors, this is where he initially engaged police,” Hannigan explained. “These are the first set of doors that he opened up on and this is the doorway where my two officers were injured.”
After trying to shoot out the doors facing Elm Street, Johnson headed up a staircase toward the library. There are still two bullet holes on the floor, and a big chunk of the wall was taken by the FBI.
“As soon as my detective opened up the metal door to enter the stairwell, he was met with a round of gunfire,” Hannigan said. “About eight or nine shots were fired at him as he backed out of the stairwell.”
Once inside the library, Johnson made his way to a hallway with a set of windows on the second floor.
“This is where he engaged police officers that were on Elm Street,” Hannigan motioned. “They were hiding behind their police cars and he was shooting at anybody that moved. You’ll also notice across the street the 7-11 is boarded up, he shot those windows out as well.”
After firing on officers, the shooter barricaded himself near a room with computer servers. This is where police negotiated with him for hours.
“They deployed the robot down this pathway to this corner, where the subject was barricaded and they deployed the explosives,” Hannigan said point at the spot where he was standing.
The bomb killed Johnson. Now, all that’s left is broken sheetrock from the explosion, electrical wires hanging from above and hundreds of bullet holes.
