Gavin Long was a man of mixed messages. He peddled self-published books with abstract themes about self-empowerment and spiritual enlightenment, but also posted rambling internet videos calling for violent action in response to what he considered oppression.
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His last tweet, posted about seven hours before the shooting, proclaimed: “Just [because] you shed your physical body doesn’t mean you’re dead”.
A Missouri man shot and killed three Baton Rouge law officers Sunday, at a moment when the nation is still reeling from the Dallas sniper ambush that claimed the lives of five officers.
According to the Kansas City Star, Baton Rouge shooter Long “declared himself a sovereign in records filed with the Jackson County recorder of deeds a year ago”. As detailed last month by the New York Times, a growing number of people believe they are “victims of a sprawling conspiracy to harass thousands of everyday Americans with mind-control weapons and armies of so-called gang stalkers”. The Daily Caller reports the shooter, Gavin Eugene Long “was a [former] Nation of Islam member” who “railed against “crackers” on his YouTube Channel.
“We do believe he was targeting officers, and he definitely did ambush these officers that he shot”, Lt. J.B. Slaton, a Louisiana State Police spokesman, said Monday morning, according to The Washington Post.
“I swear to God I love this city but I wonder if this city loves me”, he wrote.
Hillary Clinton is condemning the killing of three Louisiana law enforcement officers, saying police represent the “rule of law” and the shootings amount to taking aim “at all of us”.
“As my son Cameron and I have said from the beginning, all we want is peace”.
In a separate video, he hinted that should anything happen to him, he wanted viewers to know he was not affiliated with any particular movement or group.
“And then we tell the police, ‘You’re a social worker, you’re the parent, you’re the teacher, you’re the drug counselor.’ We tell them to keep those neighborhoods in check at all costs, and do so without causing any political blowback or inconvenience”.
Long was, however, a member of a group involved in the sovereign citizen movement. They try to put you with ISIS or some other terrorist group. I’m affiliated with the spirit of justice.
Using the pseudonym “Cosmo Setepenra”, Long, 29, railed in a series of videos, photographs and online writings at perceived injustices against black people. “The police were driven back by flames, and when medics arrived they had to treat the officers, including Jackson, for smoke inhalation”.
“You’ve got to fight back. That’s the only way a bully knows to quit”.
As a Marine, he received the National Defense Service and Marine Corps Good Conduct medals. His occupational expertise was listed as “data network specialist”.
He loved the New Orleans Saints and Pelicans nearly as much as he loved his family, his community and his job, Cavalier said.
Long sought to change his name past year in a document filed in May 2015 with the recorder of deeds in Jackson County, Missouri. The records don’t indicate why the couple divorced, but the petition indicates they had no children.
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One such incident took place in West Memphis, Arkansas, in 2010, when Sgt. Brandon Paudert and another officer were shot and killed during a traffic stop by Jerry R. Kane Jr. of Forest, Ohio, and his 16-year-old son Joseph. Long graduated in 2005 from Grandview High School, according to The Kansas City Star.
