A journalist at CBS affiliate KTVT Dallas filed a report while almost on his stomach. Another reporter was close enough that viewers could hear the early Friday morning bomb that killed one of the four snipers who fatally shot four Dallas Police Department officers and one Dallas Area Rapid Transit policeman, and wounded seven other Dallas PD officers and two civilians during a peaceful protest.

“On several instances, reporters were told to get back and get down,” Gary Schneider, president and general manager of CBS owned and operated stations, he told Broadcast and Cable. “It was a pretty harrowing experience but we got solid coverage.”

Journalists were already at the demonstration condemning the police shootings of two African American men when shots rang out just as it was ending. Schneider said having reporters on scene was invaluable, as those at CBS and many other stations quickly switched gears to launch wall-to-wall coverage, at times in the line of fire.

The attack by four snipers was in retaliation to two police killings of African American men this week. Three snipers are in custody and the fourth was killed by a bomb Dallas police set off via a robot device after he exchanged gunfire with officers from a parking garage.

“He was upset about Black Lives Matter,” Dallas Police Chief David Brown said at a news conference. “He was upset about the recent police shootings. He was upset at white people. The suspect stated he wanted to kill white people, especially white officers.”

On Tuesday 37-year-old Alton Sterling was shot and killed during an altercation with two white officers who were responding to a call about a man threatening people with a gun at a convenience store in Baton Rouge, La. Witness videos show officers telling Sterling to get on the ground, then tackling and pinning him. He was shot several times.

On Wednesday 32-year-old Philando Castille was shot and killed by a police officer during a traffic stop for a broken tail light near Minneapolis. Castille’s girlfriend streamed a video with graphic aftermath of the shooting on Facebook Live.

CBSN, MSNBC, Fox News and CNN began airing footage Thursday evening and overnight, with the broadcast networks following in the early morning hours.

As stations went live shortly after 9 p.m. Thursday, it was unclear exactly what was happening.

“We were watching from Sky4 and the ground video,” anchor Steve Eager said on air. “And suddenly people started scattering from the Belo Gardens in downtown Dallas.”

KDFW’s Alex Boyer showed images of people hiding behind a sign.

“All of a sudden we started hearing what sounded to us like gunfire. Rapid gunfire,” he told Adweek. “It was shot after shot.”

NBC-owned KXAS showed a video of an eyewitness account, and video of the gunfire.

Stations launched live streams and turned to social media, continue to do so, to update viewers and show reactions to the incident.

Variety rounded up many networks’ immediate responses to the incident.

- Fox News’ Megyn Kelly, who hosts a 9 p.m. show, was among the first to bring the Dallas events to national television, presenting coverage that she explicitly told viewers was hard to describe with definition.

- CNN’s Don Lemon began covering the events early in the 10 p.m. hour.

- MSNBC and NBC News brought Brian Williams on to the cable network at 12:35 a.m. to anchor coverage; Williams would subsequently lead a special report on NBC at 1 a.m. NBC offered its MSNBC coverage as a simulcast for local stations overnight.

- Elaine Quijano led coverage for the CBSN live stream late Thursday evening, while Shepard Smith anchored for Fox News between 11 p.m. and 1 am., after Megyn Kelly led another hour, pre-empting the regularly scheduled Hannity.

- Wall to wall coverage continued in the morning, with Chris Cuomo and John Berman anchoring coverage for CNN
- Savannah Guthrie break into NBC programming at 5:20 a.m. to cover President Obama’s statement from Poland on the event
- Scott Pelley led coverage on CBS This Morning.

The escalating incidents of gun violence continue to set the nation further on edge.

“This is a terrible blow to the city of Dallas,” Dallas Mayor Mike Rawlings said on Friday morning’s Today Show. “This is a terrible blow to the United States of America.”

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