Obama: ‘Very Hard to Untangle the Motives’ of Dallas Shooter

President Obama said Saturday "it's very hard to untangle the motives of" the black activist who murdered six police officers in Dallas. 

Obama, appearing at a NATO press conference in Warsaw, Poland, was asked about the the Dallas killer's motives. 

"I’m wondering if you could help us understand how you describe his motives?" the reporter asked. "Do you consider this an act of domestic terrorism? Was this a hate crime? Was this a mentally ill man with a gun?"

Obama said it's hard to know what motivated Micah Xavier Johnson. 

“First of all, I think it’s very hard to untangle the motives of this shooter," Obama replied. "As we’ve seen, a whole range of incidents with mass shooters, they are by definition troubled. By definition, if you shoot people who pose no threat to you, strangers, you have a troubled mind. What triggers that, what feeds it, what sets it off, I’ll leave that to psychologists and people who study these kinds of incidents."

Dallas Police Chief David Brown, speaking to the press Friday morning, said Johnson specifically expressed a desire to "kill white people, especially white officers" and that he was motivated by recent police killings of black Americans. 

The president said whatever motivated Johnson, it does not represent America.

"What I can say is that although he made have used as an excuse his anger about previous incidents, as has been indicated at least in the press, and as - Chief Brown I think indicated, in no way does that represent what the overwhelming majority of Americans think,” he said.