Three other officers were wounded. One them was hospitalized in critical condition, described as fighting for his life with gunshots to his head and stomach.
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From his window, Joshua Godwin said he saw the suspect, who was dressed in black with a ski mask, combat boots and extra bullets.
Long served from August 22, 2005, to August 1, 2010, according to the little information the military has released. He later joined the Army and served as a decorated soldier from 2002 to 2009, including three tours in Iraq.
The officers were killed after responding to a report of a man carrying an assault weapon. “It’s the chilling and the shear brutality of the shooting”, Col. Edmonson said.
The gunman, Gavin Long, ambushed those officers and was “certainly seeking out police,” the Louisiana state police said Monday, according to The Associated Press.
Three guns were recovered from the scene and much was learned about the attack from the gunman’s social media footprint, Edmonson told reporters. Police would not confirm the pseudonym Monday, but videos posted to a YouTube account using that name feature Long calling for “bloodshed” as a way for the black community to be freed from its oppressors.
He also says: “You’ve got to fight back”.
In what appeared to be Long’s last tweet, from the day of the shooting, he wrote, “Just [because] you wake up every morning doesn’t mean that you’re living”. The shooting was captured on cellphone video. A government source said an emergency 911call may have been used to lure Baton Rouge police.
Jackson, 32, was burdened by the weight of of the nation’s unrest and turned to Facebook to share his feelings on what it was like to be a black police officer in a city that had suddenly become a flashpoint in the national conversation on race and justice.
Following Sunday’s shootings, Baton Rouge police officers took steps to increase their own security.
The Dallas killings happened during a peaceful demonstration to protest police shootings of black Americans.
Another Louisiana state police spokesman, JB Slaton, told The New York Times: “We are still trying to find out what his motive was, and that’s going to be part of our investigation”. He said that white people were buying his book but he wanted “his people” to have a copy.
One of the people paying his respects Tuesday to law enforcement officers was LSU football coach Les Miles, a prominent figure in a city where the Tigers’ purple and gold colors can be seen flying everywhere.
Jackson said she never anxious about her brother, who was “outgoing” and “kind”, being on the force, not until recent tensions in Baton Rouge after officers fatally shot Alton Sterling earlier this month outside a convenience store.
Across this city, shocked residents have gathered in churches and at community vigils to pray for the law enforcement community and the three officers who were slain in an ambush by a gunman. “We as a nation have to be loud and clear that nothing justifies violence on law enforcement…”
Presumptive Democratic presidential nominee Hillary Clinton, in a speech to the NAACP civil rights group in Cincinnati, said she would bring the “full weight of the law to bear” against police killers, but added that here is “another hard truth at the heart of this complex matter: Many African-Americans fear the police”. They are reviewing his cellphone records and investigating whether he had any co-conspirators.
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Bryan Lynn adapted this VOANews.com story for Learning English. Hai Do was the editor.
