Five days after the awful ambush of our Dallas and DART police officers last July, President Barack Obama traveled to a city still in deep mourning. He shared his hope that events so horrible could draw us together.

"The pain we feel may not soon pass, but my faith tells me that they did not die in vain," Obama said. "I believe our sorrow can make us a better country."

In the nearly 11 months that have followed, Dallas residents from every corner of the city have worked to bring to life that presidential aspiration, to make certain that our pain is an impetus for unity, rather than the division it has so often delivered elsewhere.

But healing happens best when the full dimensions of the harm, and of the heroism it triggered, are laid bare for the grief-stricken to inspect. That's been hard to do because so many of the questions raised by the events of July 7 have yet to be answered.

Often when great crimes like these happen, a trial follows in which lawyers and government officials sift through the endless details of the events leading to the crime, and produce a narrative that explains if not why things happened, then certainly how they happened and in what order and with what consequences.

That has not happened here, largely because Micah Johnson, the architect of our anguish, was killed by police before the sun rose after the night of the murders.

Johnson remains unlamented here. But with his death, a silence has gathered over that night's events. Legitimate questions — including about Chief David Brown's nationally unprecedented decision to order the use of a robot to kill Johnson — have not yet been addressed.

That can change, now that the DPD is said to be nearing the end of its long investigation into July 7. The public release of its findings — and the facts that support them — is the only way Dallas can have confidence that it knows the full story of one of the darkest moments in our history.

The details will not be easy to view. Seeking to avoid that pain for herself and her children, Katrina Ahrens, whose husband Lorne Ahrens was one of the five murdered police officers that night, has sued in federal court to stop the city from releasing some of the most sensitive records — including a video said to show her husband being shot to death.

Ahrens' request is deeply human. Nevertheless, we urge the judge to give full weight to the city's right to see unvarnished and unredacted everything investigators have learned about the horror visited upon Dallas last July 7, and about the heroism that rose up to meet it.

Access denied

Here's a sampling of information The Dallas Morning News has requested that has been denied or blocked by the Dallas Police Department:

Transcripts and recordings of the negotiations with Micah Johnson



All camera and surveillance footage of the July 7 incident



All Dallas Area Rapid Transit police reports related to the shooting



Medical examiner's autopsy and investigative report



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