RACHEL MARTIN, HOST:
We're going to talk now with Seema Yasmin. She's a reporter with The Dallas Morning News. She has been covering these events all morning. Good morning, Seema.
SEEMA YASMIN: Good morning, Rachel.
MARTIN: This morning you spent some time at the hospital where some of the wounded police officers were being treated. Describe what was happening there. What was the scene?
YASMIN: So I stayed outside of Baylor University Medical Center, in - close to downtown Dallas, from midnight until just a few moments ago. And there were dozens of police officers, dozens of police vehicles there throughout the night. The mayor of Dallas, Mike Rawlings, and the Dallas police chief, David Brown, came to the hospital. There were hugs and embraces between them and the officers there.
And about an hour or so ago, I saw two bodies being transferred from the hospital into a medical examiner's police van. And a dozen or so - maybe two or three dozen police officers and medical staff had made a human chain, kind of like a pathway, from the emergency room exit to that van. So that was the last thing that I saw - and then drove home from there noticing that that the Reunion Tower, which is a very beautiful, prominent part of the Dallas skyline, which is always lit up in very pretty colors, was dark. And that felt very emblematic of moving into today and how many of us are feeling here.
MARTIN: Do you know anything about the condition of the officers who were wounded?
YASMIN: I know that six of them are wounded. And three of those were transit officers. So they belong to the Dallas Area Rapid Transit. And those three, I have learned, are in stable condition. And DART has said that they don't have life-threatening injuries. But the other three officers, we don't know much about their condition just yet.
MARTIN: Seema, do you have any idea if any of the protesters were hurt in the violence last night?
YASMIN: I do. And I spoke to the family of one woman, Shatamea Taylor (ph) - 38-year-old woman who was shot in the leg while she was actually leaving the protest. I spoke to her sisters outside of the hospital. They were leaving as their sister was going into the OR to have a five-hour surgery, they anticipated, to treat that gunshot wound. And they told me that their sister had taken her three sons with her to the protest. And they described the protest as being peaceful, a place where people had taken their children. Families were there.
And I asked, why did your sister take her three boys? And they said because their sister wanted her boys to know that you could protest peacefully in America, that you could disagree and that you could have your voice heard. You could be part of the community. And they said that actually, the shots were fired as people were leaving the protest. It was almost over. And as the shots were fired, their sister shielded her three sons. And that's when she was shot in the leg.
MARTIN: And just briefly, what, if anything, do you know about the suspects?
YASMIN: We know that one suspect, a woman who was involved in a shootout with police, is currently in custody. And Dallas Mayor Mike Rawlings has told reporters that that suspect is in custody, but tight-lipped is the description he gave. And we know that one other suspect, I believe to be a male, is deceased. And there are reports that he is deceased from a self-inflicted gunshot.
MARTIN: We'll be following details as the investigation unfolds. Seema Yasmin is a reporter with The Dallas Morning News. Seema, thanks so much for talking with us.
YASMIN: Thanks, Rachel. Transcript provided by NPR, Copyright NPR.
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