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Woman shot by Dallas gunman was trying to protect her sons

A woman who attended the protest Thursday in Dallas, and was also shot by the sniper, saw two police officers get shot in front of her.

Shetamia Taylor, 37, saw two police officers get shot in front of her

Emotional victim describes Dallas shooting

8 years ago
Duration 2:22
An officer 'jumped on top of me and covered me and my son,' says Shetamia Taylor. 'I saw another officer get shot right in front of me'

A woman who was shot by the sniper in Dallas broke down in tears as she recalled shielding her teenage son from the bullets, and spoke of the police officers who shielded them both.​

Shetamia Taylor, 37, went to the protest with her four teenage sons, aged 12, 13, 15 and 17.

She said she saw a police officer get hit by a bullet.

"He said, 'he has a gun, run,'" recalled Taylor, as the officer fell to the ground after being shot again.

Taylor, whose voice broke as she spoke through tears, said they all began to run, with her sons ahead of her. That's when Taylor got shot herself.

Shetamia Taylor, 37, spoke through tears as she told of how she threw herself over her son to protect him after she was shot Thursday in Dallas. (CBC)

'I felt the bullet ... when it hit me in the back of the leg."

She said she doesn't know if it bounced off the ground or if it hit her directly.

She then tackled one of her sons and pushed him down on the ground between a car and a curb, and she covered her son with her own body to protect him.

"And I just laid on top of him," she said.

Bullets whizzing by

She said several police officers around were asking if anyone had been hit. When she said she had, three of them surrounded her and her son and covered them.

"They stayed there with us," as bullets whizzed through the air around them, she said.

They stayed there with us- Shetamia Taylor, speaking of officers who helped her and her son

While they were huddled on the ground, she saw another officer get shot in front of her.

Taylor is recovering from a shattered tibia.

She thanked police for protecting her and her sons in the chaos that erupted, saying she always held police officers "in a very high place." She said her youngest son wants to be a cop.

Taylor's sister, Theresa Williams, told the Associated Press earlier Sunday that Taylor had gone to the protest because she was fed up with the recent shootings of black men by police.

"She's got four boys who she just wants to be able to be peacefully out here in the world," Williams said.

Taylor is one of two civilians injured in the attack, which killed five Dallas officers and injured another seven.

The protest was one of many in the U.S. after black men were fatally shot by police in Minnesota and Louisiana.

Obama to lead interfaith service Tuesday

The White House says President Barack Obama will travel to Dallas on Tuesday and deliver remarks at an interfaith memorial service.

The service will take place at the Morton H. Meyerson Symphony Center. The White House says Obama is making the trip at the invitation of Dallas Mayor Mike Rawlings.

Obama has spoken daily during the trip about the attacks, calling for police and protesters to "listen to each other."

with files from The Associated Press