President Obama renewed his push for gun control measures Friday as he condemned the “senseless murders” of five Dallas police officers in a coordinated sniper attack overnight.

President Barack Obama called the fatal shootings of several Dallas police officers “despicable,” and said that it highlighted the need for better gun control laws.

One of the suspects in Thursday night’s targeted shooting of police officers has been identified as 25-year-old Micah Johnson, CBS News and the Los Angeles Times reported.

Members of the community gathered to protest the police-related shooting deaths of Alton Sterling in Louisiana and Philando Castile in Minnesota. What was a peaceful protest devolved into a horrific attack on law enforcement that left 12 police officers shot. Five were killed. The attack occurred when two snipers opened fire from elevated positions near Dealey Plaza. People were running for their lives as rifle fire was heard. It’s one of the worst attacks on law enforcement in a century.

At least one sniper shot 14 people, killing five police officers, in Dallas late Thursday night, turning a peaceful protest against the police shootings of Alton Sterling in Baton Rouge, Louisiana, and Philando Castile in Falcon Heights, Minnesota, into a scene of chaos and carnage.

A gunman suspected of killing five police officers during a protest march in downtown Dallas late Thursday told negotiators before he died that he was upset over recent police-involved shootings of African Americans and "wanted to kill white people, especially white officers," Dallas Police Chief David Brown said.