Publisher's Weekly Review
Journalist Thompson debuts with a spellbinding and meticulously researched account of the deadly attack on Dallas law enforcement officers at a July 2016 rally to protest the police shootings of Philando Castile, in Minnesota, and Alton Sterling, in Louisiana. Drawing on interviews and video and audio recordings, Thompson recreates the assault--which killed five police officers, wounded 11 people, and ended with the death of attacker Micah Xavier Johnson by robot-delivered bomb--from the perspectives of key players including Dallas police chief David Brown; SWAT team negotiator Larry Gordon; protester Shetamia Taylor, who was shot in the leg while shielding her son from Johnson's bullets; and trauma surgeon Brian Williams, who operated on the wounded officers. Thompson laces her moment-by-moment rundown of the event with harrowing descriptions of the string of police killings that galvanized the Black Lives Matter movement, and illuminating historical tangents about the JFK assassination, the Attica prison uprising, and the disastrous 1985 police bombing of a black activist group's headquarters in Philadelphia. Throughout, she spotlights the complexities of the racial dynamics involved, noting, for example, that Williams, "the only black doctor on a team of twelve trauma surgeons," both sympathized with Johnson's anger over police killings of black men and tried to save the lives of the white cops he targeted. This standout account is both a riveting page-turner and a nuanced portrait of one of contemporary America's most divisive social issues. (Sept.)
Booklist Review
On July 7, 2016, a gunman opened fire on police during a peaceful protest in Dallas to demand justice after a police officer killed Philando Castile during a traffic stop. After exchanging fire, the gunman fled to a nearby building where the SWAT team cornered him for a multi-hour standoff. Journalist Thompson, who won an award for her Dallas Morning News story of the event, chronicles that night moment by moment, depicting the perspectives of a protester, multiple Dallas police and SWAT team officers, a trauma surgeon, Dallas' mayor, and others. Told in evocative detail drawn from hours of body-camera footage and interviews, Standoff is a complex look at a traumatic, life-altering event. Most striking is the viewpoint of Senior Cpl. Larry Gordon, SWAT negotiator and one of two Black men on the team. Because most of the perspectives come from law enforcement, Standoff at times seems to argue for the continued militarization of police departments. This look at recent history adds to the ongoing conversation around police brutality and racism in the U.S.
Library Journal Review
Tensions boiled over during the summer of 2016 as activists and others took to the streets nationwide to protest the police shooting deaths of Alton Sterling and Philando Castile. On July 7, Dallas-area activists planned to protest by marching through the downtown area of the city. By the end of day five, police officers lay dead with several wounded, shot while on duty by a gunman armed with a semiautomatic rifle. In her first book, Thompson, who covered this story for the Washington Post and the Dallas Morning News, takes readers inside the gun battle, which raged over Dallas streets and ended, hours later, with the death of the gunman inside a local community college from an improvised bomb fashioned by Dallas SWAT explosives experts. Thompson conducted in-depth interviews, and reviewed numerous documents and hundreds of hours of camera footage to assemble this detailed account of the tragic events. She explores the thoughts and feelings of the SWAT team members, giving their perspectives greater depth and clarity, while placing the events in their proper context. VERDICT Readers interested in issues of police violence, race relations, and true crime will find this work illuminating.--Chad E. Statler, Westlake Porter P.L., Westlake, OH
