Micah Johnson served six years as a private in the Army Reserve force and was in Afghanistan.
The parents of the gunman who fatally ambushed police at a Dallas protest last week say he was "disappointed" and grew reclusive after being discharged from the US Army in 2015.
"The military was not what Micah (Johnson) thought it would be," his mother Delphine told TheBlaze network in an interview released Monday.
"He was very disappointed, very disappointed. But it may be that the ideal that he thought of our government, what he thought the military represented, it just didn't live up to his expectations."
She called her son's deadly rampage "injustice."
Micah Johnson served six years as a private in the Army Reserve force and was in Afghanistan from November 2013 to July 2014, the Army said. He was a carpentry and masonry specialist.
It was after his service that Johnson began studying black history and expressed interest in his heritage, according to his father, James. Delphine said her son became a "hermit."
But relatives stressed that Johnson had never shown any signs of hatred for white people or other racial groups. His stepmother Donna is white.
The gunman opened fire at the Dallas demonstration that followed the deaths of two black men at the hands of police. He shot dead five police, wounding nine more officers and two civilians.
He was killed by a bomb carried by a police robot device.
"I don't know what to say to anybody to make anything better. I didn't see it coming," said the 25-year-old's father, breaking down in tears. "I love my son with all my heart. I hate what he did."
Founded by conservative media personality Glenn Beck, TheBlaze announced it would release the family's full interview later this week.
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