'Dallas is like a ghost town': A city reacts to the deadliest attack on US law enforcement since 9/11
Dallas was like a ghost town today.
I arrived this morning at 11am local time, having flown from Perth to LA and then here.
The siege had ended and police were raiding the home of the suspect, Micah Johnson, so I headed downtown where the shootings had taken place.
Shops were shut, businesses were shut. Twenty blocks had been cordoned off with a huge forensic investigation still underway.
The streets were empty except for the odd person coming into the city, people who had seen the events on TV and wanted to see the scene for themselves.
They wanted to express their grief and sadness - and shock. They are shocked that this could happen and that somehow a peaceful protest in their city could turn so violent and blood, so quickly.
America is no stranger to mass shootings, but this has taken people by surprise because it was directed at police officers and because it was the deadliest attack on officers since 9/11.
That is a very sobering thought.
I have just come from a massive floral tribute to victims outside the Dallas Police Department, which has become the focal point for grief.
There were dozens of people lining up to pay tribute. Every minute someone new came along, laid a flower down and stood there for a moment to think about what had happened.
Then someone else took their place and it just went on and on, the stream of people who were grief-stricken, their mood one of over-riding sadness and shock.
One woman told me she was worried that this event would affect policing in the city.
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She was afraid that, because police were targeted, they would be on edge and as a result come down harder on local people.
I spoke to a police officer who was also at the memorial. He said he had been at home, watching the events unfold on television and had just wanted to throw on his uniform and go downtown to help.
He said when he took the oath, he knew he would be risking his life and that his colleagues might die in the line of duty, but he had still wanted to be a policeman – and this siege had not changed that.
It had made him want to be a policeman more than ever.
Of course, the Dallas protest was organised as part of a country-wide movement in response to the fatal police shootings of two black men, Alton Sterling and Philando Castile.
How will the Dallas shootings affect the Black Lives Matter movement? At this stage, that is not what is concerning the people I’ve met in Dallas – they are concerned with the loss their city has just suffered.
But across the US, protests are continuing.
In Atlanta, hundreds of people have blocked off a freeway in their protest over police use of force, and protesters continue to march the streets of New York City and Philadelphia.
Rob Scott was in conversation with Emma Canavan.
