Growing memorial at Dallas Police Headquarters is spot for flowers and tears

Memorial to five fallen officers outside Dallas Police Headquarters. (Melissa Jacobs)

DALLAS – A makeshift memorial at Dallas Police Headquarters has become a place for people to leave flowers and notes—and to shed tears in remembrance of the victims of Thursday night's sniper ambush.

Two squad cars were set up as a memorial after gunman Micah Johnson opened fire at a peaceful civil rights protest, killing five of Dallas’ Finest and wounding seven others.

A large crowd gathered at the site Saturday to pay their respects.

One family of four stepped forward and left a bouquet of flowers.

Others kept a silent vigil, holding hands and murmuring a prayer with heads bowed.

Notes lefts at memorial to five fallen officers at Dallas Police Headquarters. (Melissa Jacobs)

One of the notes taped to one of the patrol vehicles reads, "You're my hero." Another says, "We'll take the watch now.”

Sgt. Chandler Davis stood at attention and saluted the fallen officers. He held his salute for several minutes.

“He wants to stand here as they stand in the line of fire everyday,” his friend Navy officer David Fannery told FoxNews.com.

Less than a mile away others dropped off flowers at the Dallas Police Memorial near City Hall, The Dallas Morning News reported.

The memorial had just been scrubbed and polished by a cleaning crew from Downtown Dallas, the paper reported.

"We just felt like the memorial needed to look its best today," crew member Dustin Bullard said.