The Dallas PD's actions appear to mark the first time in US history authorities have used a robot or drone armed with a bomb to kill a civilian. This comes at a time when police forces across the nation are being criticized and scrutinized for using military-style tools. After a police officer shot and killed Michael Brown, an 18-year-old black man, in Ferguson, Missouri, last year, riots broke out in the area and police responded with weapons, vehicles and gear intended for military use. Images of Ferguson police in military-style body armor holding assault rifles sparked a debate about the militarization of police forces across the United States. Armed robots are the latest tool to transition from the battlefield to civilian life.

A bomb disposal robot has, it seems, for the first time disposed of a human being. In the hours following Thursday night's mass shooting of 12 Dallas police officers (5 dead and 7 injured), police cornered the suspect, now identified as Micah X. Johnson, in El Centro College. After a lengthy negotiation during which the suspect, according to the Dallas Police Department, said he was upset about the recent police shootings of black men and wanted to kill white people, talks broke down and the police and the suspect exchanged gun fire. "We saw no other option but to use our bomb robot and place a device on its extension for it to detonate where the suspect was," Dallas PD Police Chief told reporters on Friday morning. SEE ALSO: Dallas police slammed for tweeting picture of'suspect' Police detonated the explosive device, killed the suspect and may have just changed law enforcement forever.

The horrifying details of Thursday night's mass shooting of five law enforcement officers in Dallas during an otherwise peaceful demonstration includes a startling revelation: Police apparently equipped their bomb-disposal robot with a bomb that it then detonated to kill the suspect. According to Dallas PD Police Chief David Brown, police cornered one suspect, who has yet to be identified, in El Centro College and, after hours of negotiation and an exchange of gunfire, they brought in a "bomb robot." "We saw no other option but to use our bomb robot and place a device on its extension for it to detonate where the suspect was ... The suspect is deceased as a result of detonating the bomb," he said. This statement is remarkable on a number of levels. Bomb detection and disarming robots are not a new phenomenon, but they are almost exclusively used to find ordinances and, if possible, detonate them far away from people.