A man first identified by police as a suspect in a deadly attack on police officers in downtown Dallas Thursday night has been cleared.
“This man cooperated, was interviewed, released. He is not a suspect/person of interest,” Dallas police public information officer Sana Syed wrote on Twitter.
This man cooperated, was interviewed, released. He is not a suspect/person of interest. @DallasPD #dallas https://t.co/bG8awl6RKx
— (((Sana))) (@dallaspiosana) July 8, 2016
Police tweeted a photo of a man who they called a person of interest in the shooting of 11 police officers Thursday evening. The man in the photograph was wearing a camouflage shirt and was carrying a long rifle.
This is one of our suspects. Please help us find him! pic.twitter.com/Na5T8ZxSz6
— Dallas Police Depart (@DallasPD) July 8, 2016
Dallas police then said the man, identified as Mark Hughes, turned himself in and was in custody.
Cory Hughes, who claims to be Mark’s brother, took to social media to defend his brother’s innocence.
"When they decided to put my brother on the national media as a suspect, I approached the police to let them know, 'Hey man, my brother had nothing to do with it," he said.
One suspect was in custody and another was dead after a lengthy standoff at El Centro College downtown.
A suspicious package was found near one suspect earlier in the night. “Extensive sweeps” of downtown continued into Friday morning, Dallas PD Maj. Max Geron wrote on Twitter.