Three officers were killed and three were wounded, one critically, when Gavin Eugene Long, a former US Marine Corps sergeant, opened fire on police responding to a report of a gunman dressed all in black walking down a street in Louisiana’s capital on Sunday morning.
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Across this city, shocked residents gathered Tuesday in churches, at community vigils and a motorcycle rally to offer support for the law enforcement community and the three officers who were slain in an ambush by a gunman. “He acted like they weren’t even there”, East Baton Rouge Parish Sheriff Sid Gautreaux said.
Once again in this summer of slaughter, Americans struggled to parse helter-skelter fragments of information: A rifle-wielding shooter clad in black near Baton Rouge police headquarters.
Perhaps you may not have heard of this yet, but there was actually another plot to kill police officers in Baton Rouge that was foiled ahead of time…
But Long, who was black, said in a series of social media messages posted in recent days, some from Dallas, that he was fed up with the mistreatment of African-Americans at the hands of law enforcement, and praised the attack on Dallas police. More negative for police performance than being jittery, she said, is the feeling that they’ve lost the full confidence of police chiefs, elected officials and community leaders who second-guess their decisions without full information.
The AP was not able to conclusively verify Long sent the photos himself from his Google account. The photographs appear to have been taken from inside a auto because a gearshift and a cup holder are visible.
Many hope that the cycle of violence that started in Baton Rouge with the death of Alton Sterling has finally come to an end in the city which has grappled with grief, death and loss in a more profound manner in the last few days than perhaps anywhere else in the country. He addressed reporters for about five minutes after the meeting without taking questions.
Even as Baton Rouge was mourning the three officers, news came Tuesday that a police in Kansas City was shot and killed while sitting in his patrol vehicle. It was a crime fueled by pure hatred, and Long specifically waited for his 29th birthday to launch the attack… The shootout came as the city was already on edge after protests and arrests following the video-recorded July 5 shooting death of Alton Sterling, a black man, during an altercation with two Baton Rouge police officers.
Karama said he provided a copy of the letter to Federal Bureau of Investigation agents who interviewed him at his home Wednesday.
The story about the manifesto was first reported by BuzzFeed.
“I swear to God I love this city”, he wrote, “but I wonder if this city loves me”.
Louisiana State Police Col. Mike Edmonson said law enforcement officers found an array of hand-written documents in Long’s vehicle and a hotel where he was staying, but that he did not know if the material included the letter Karama shared. Investigators say they had no connection to the shooting.
The letter, signed using the alias “Cosmo” Long used online, goes on about the battle between “good cops & bad cops”.
Long then drove north on Airline Highway and saw another patrol officer vacuuming his vehicle at a auto wash.
One of the victims was also a veteran.
(AP Photo/Gerald Herbert). Millville, N.J. police chaplain Robert Ossler prays Monday, July 18, 2016, at a makeshift memorial at the fatal shooting scene in Baton Rouge, La., where several law enforcement officers were killed on Sunday.
He did not specifically mention Baton Rouge or detail his plans for an attack in the letter. “I want to hug them and let them know that I know and understand”.
Ron Hosko, a former FBI assistant director who oversaw criminal investigations, said it’s hard to distinguish the “talkers” from those committed to violence. 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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Yarima Karama, of Columbus, Ohio, said he received an email containing Long’s manifesto..
