Twelve Dallas police officers were shot and five killed late Thursday after two snipers opened fire during an otherwise peaceful protest downtown over recent police shootings, according to Dallas Police.

Four Dallas Area Rapid Transit Authority officers were among the law enforcement officers who were shot, three with non-life-threatening injuries. Three Dallas Police Department officers and one DART officer were killed as of midnight local time. Another death was reported by the department just after 2 a.m. Friday local time.

Dallas Mayor Mike Rawlings said on NBC's "Today" that the total number of officers shot had been raised to 12.

Three suspects, including one women, are being held in custody. Another suspect died early Friday morning after a shootout with police. It is unclear at this time if they are the only suspects involved, police said.

Chief David Brown said in a press conference at 12:30 a.m. Friday local time that police exchanged gunfire with the encircled suspect, and that during 45 minutes of negotiations the suspect threatened to kill more police officers, said "the end is coming" and warned garage is rigged with several bombs.



Brown also revealed police have a female in custody from the same area, and that two more suspects driving a Mercedes are in custody and were being interviewed.

The motive is unclear, Brown said, adding that police were "not getting the cooperation" from the suspects in custody. He also said police are working under the assumption that all the suspects worked together in the assault.

Dallas PD chief says some of 11 officers gunned down were shot in the back in planned attack https://t.co/U0SDRdOrPAhttps://t.co/2FZKRipLi3— ABC News (@ABC) July 8, 2016



Rawlings, also speaking at the press conference, said that come morning, the area would still be "an active crime scene" because of the unknown size of the threat.

"Concerning what is going to happen tomorrow morning — this is still an active crime scene. And we are determining right now how big that crime scene is."

Police confirmed at 10 p.m. local time that two suspects were on the loose.

"We believe these suspects were positioning themselves in a way to try to triangulate against officers," Brown said during an earlier press conference at 11 p.m. local time.

Brown also said the suspects may have planted a bomb in downtown Dallas. Members of the Dallas bomb squad were inspecting a possible bomb that was left behind by the assailants.

President Obama, who is in Warsaw, Poland, for a NATO summit, was being "updated" on the situation in Dallas, the White House said early Friday morning.

"The President has been updated on the shooting of police officers in Dallas. He asked his team to keep him updated on the situation as they get additional information," said White House spokesman Josh Earnest in a statement.

As many as 60 shots were fired since the incident erupted around 8:45 p.m. local time, according to witnesses. Up to 1,000 demonstrators were sent running for cover.

Police initially released a picture of one of the suspects, carrying a rifle and wearing a camouflage T-shirt during the protest.



Afterward, there were reports of eyewitnesses saying the man was not the shooter, and that we was in the crowd when the shooting started. Police said that he was still a "person of interest" and that he had turned himself in.

Video shows police responding after shots fired in Dallas during protest of recent killings https://t.co/00c6j7cAPUhttps://t.co/P2K9Z0vziF— ABC News (@ABC) July 8, 2016



Demonstrators had taken to the streets downtown Dallas earlier in the night after two black men were killed by police officers in separate incidents earlier this week.

This story will be updated.