WATCH: Attorney General Loretta Lynch asks U.S. to reject violence

Attorney General Loretta Lynch addressed the nation Friday after gunfire erupted during a peaceful protest in Dallas, leaving five police officers dead and injured five more officers injured and two civilians.

The protest was organized in response to the separate shooting deaths of two African-American men during traffic stops in Louisiana and Minnesota this week. The Department of Justice has opened civil rights investigations into the deaths of Philando Castile and Alton Sterling, Lynch said.

In the face of “profound grief and heartbreaking loss,” Lynch stressed the need for action over violence in the United States.

“After the events of this week, Americans across our country are feeling a sense of helplessness, of uncertainty and of fear,” she said. “These feelings are understandable, and they are justified, but the answer must not be violence. The answer is never violence.”