A gunman with a history of domestic violence and delusional behavior opened fire at the Dallas police headquarters early on Saturday, unleashing a tense standoff that ended hours later when the man was shot and killed by a police sniper, authorities say.

The suspect — who identified himself to police as 35-year-old James Boulware — was shot by a sniper at around 5 a.m. in a parking lot in the Dallas suburb of Hutchins, where he was holed up inside an armored van, Dallas Police Chief David Brown said at a news conference on Saturday morning.

“At 5:07 a.m., our SWAT snipers shot at the suspect through the front windshield of the van, striking the suspect,” Brown told reporters. “Since that time, we have sent the bomb tech robot, that has a camera, to try and confirm whether the suspect is deceased.”

In a turn of events that remains almost as shocking as the attack itself, no one was injured in the violent rampage.

The gunman’s death brought to a close a chaotic spate of violence that began nearly five hours earlier when the suspect parked a dark-colored vehicle outside the police headquarters at 1400 South Lamar Street and began to spray the building with gunfire.

And yet, the sniper’s bullet did not put an end to the danger faced by authorities on Saturday.

Several hours after the suspect had been shot, police were still unable to approach the man’s vehicle until they could confirm whether it was rigged with explosives. The suspect had told police negotiators that he had “C4″ explosives in the van and authorities later found two pipe bombs packed with screws and nails inside the vehicle, police said. During an intentional detonation of the ordinance on Saturday afternoon, the suspect’s vehicle caught fire, setting off rounds, police said.

Brown added that his department is now working closely with the FBI.

Some witnesses originally reported seeing what appeared to be multiple people firing automatic weapons at the police station, but Brown said authorities believe only one individual was involved in the shooting.

Cell phones from a gathering across the street showed the suspect firing upon police and officers sprinting for cover.

“He could have easily struck a civilian, but we think his intent was to strike officers,” he said. “He didn’t care when officers confronted him. He shot at officers just as freely as he was able to.”

As more officers arrived, the gunman rammed a police car with the van, shooting at the officers and other police cars before officers returned fire.

Brown said authorities have not uncovered a motive for Saturday’s shooting, but they are investigating the suspect’s troubling social media footprint.

The website Heavy.com noted that the suspect left aggressive messages on a Dallas County judge’s Facebook page, and left various conspiratorial rants on several websites about North Korea, Russia and Osama bin Laden.

Police in Paris, Texas, told the Dallas Morning News that they’d arrested Boulware in 2013 “after he obtained firearms, ammunition and body armor before threatening to attack his family, as well as churches and schools.”

The suspect’s father, Jim Boulware of Carrollton, Texas, told the Morning News that his son blamed police for losing custody of his child. He told the paper that, while his son had threatened violence in the past, his decision to lash out at authorities came as a shock.

“He blames the police for taking his son away from him,” Boulware told the Morning News. “I tried to tell him that the police are just doing their job.”

Though his case was later dismissed, Boulware’s father said the arrest was the beginning of his son’s unraveling. He said Boulware was unable to find steady work and lost custody of his son to the child’s mother.