Law enforcement sources tell CBS News that Long used the pseudonym of Cosmo Setepenra.
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“You’ve got to fight back. That’s the only way a bully knows to quit”. He doesn’t know words. “Obviously our community is hurting, and only through peace can we heal, and that’s going to take meaningful dialogue”.
The officers say their training has prepared them for all possibilities.
Long sought to change his name past year in a document filed in May 2015 with the recorder of deeds in Jackson County, Missouri.
In this aerial photo, investigators work part of the shooting scene in Baton Rouge, La., where law enforcement officers were injured and killed, Sunday, July 17, 2016.
Long officially filed paperwork in Jackson County, Missouri, a year ago declaring himself Cosmo Ausar Setepenra, a “sovereign citizen” of the United Washitaw De Dugdahmoundyah Mu’ur nation, a loosely affiliated network of mostly African Americans who claim to be Native American and don’t believe the US government has jurisdiction over them.
“I think the police in this country are treated very unfairly”, he said.
He also referred to himself as a member of the Washitaw de Dugdahmoundyah, also known as the Washitaw Nation.
Long was wearing all black and was wearing a mask, Baton Rouge Police Department Sgt. Don Coppola said.
James Cooper, Garafola’s brother-in-law, wrote on a GoFundMe page set up to help the family that Tonja was about to meet up with her husband Sunday before they went on a family vacation.
But an imprint from the gunman left behind on social media included online videos in which he decried mistreatment of African-Americans by law enforcement and praised the July 7 killings of Dallas policemen by another black United States military veteran. Edmonson said Long’s movements showed tactical strategy and were chilling in their brutality.
A website, social media accounts and YouTube videos that appeared tied to Long included complaints about police treatment of black people and praise for killings of the Dallas policemen.
“We’re led by a man that either is not tough, not smart, or he’s got something else in mind”, he said at the time.
Discussing the difficulties of being a police officer and a black man in America now, he said he was “disappointed in some family, friends and officers for some reckless comments”. He said he had already made a decision to travel to the city before the shooting, and guessed that “the spiritual was just telling me it was the right place to come”. “He acted like they weren’t even there”, East Baton Rouge Parish Sheriff Sid Gautreaux said.
“But when an African fights back, he is wrong”, he says. I see it too.
Long was a former Marine who spent time in Iraq and was discharged at the rank of sergeant in 2010, according to the USA military. He was a data network specialist who received the Marine Corps Good Conduct Medal, Navy Unit Commendation Medal and others. CBS News reported that Long, who did a one-year stint in Iraq in 2008 while serving in the armed forces, described himself in some videos as a nutritionist, life coach, and personal trainer. “We need to temper our words and open our hearts. all of us”, Obama said.
After the Marines, Long attended the University of Alabama for one semester, in the spring of 2012, according to university spokesperson Chris Bryant. “And just [because] you shed your physical body doesn’t mean that you’re dead”. Two of the lawmen killed on Sunday were white, and a third was black.
Ann Lundgren said Garafola worked a security detail for all seven B-Quik stores in the Baton Rouge area, ensuring routes to the bank were secure.
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In southeastern Kansas City, police converged on a small turquoise frame house listed under Long’s name. During a call to dispatch, an officer said, “unknown where the shots are coming from”. He was divorced and living in a working-class neighborhood, and Missouri records show he had no criminal history.
