Three police officers are dead and three others injured after a shooting Sunday morning in Baton Rouge, Louisiana, officials said.
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“We as a nation have to be loud and clear that nothing justifies violence against law enforcement”.
Gov. John Bell Edwards told media Sunday afternoon that the gunman committed, “an absolutely unspeakable, heinous attack”.
“The movement began as a call to end violence”, he said.
Police received a call of “suspicious person walking down Airline Highway with an assault rifle”, a source said. The gunman was fatally shot.
The shootings in Baton Rouge had no known connection to Massachusetts, State Police Colonel Richard McKeon said in a statement Sunday. The demonstrations were sparked off by the killings of Philando Castile and Alton Sterling. Three of the officers died, one was in critical condition and another was in fair condition, she said. “I pledge the full support of the Department of Justice as the investigation unfolds”. My heart goes out to all in your city, the public, law enforcement, first responders and to all at WAFB. He said he heard semi-automatic fire and perhaps a handgun.
He saw a man in a red shirt lying in an empty parking lot and “another gunman running away as more shots were being fired back and forth from several guns”.
One of the Baton Rouge police officers killed in the shooting was 41 years old with just under one year of service.
Donald Trump, the presumed Republican nominee for president, mourned the fallen officers on Sunday. Several officers were shot in what is being called an ambush, three of the law enforcement members sustaining fatal wounds.
Baton Rouge Police Sgt. Don Coppola told The Associated Press earlier that the officers were rushed to a local hospital. Three others were wounded.
Police were using a specialized robot to check for explosives near the body of the suspect shot and killed. “Police officers have always been vulnerable and they know it”.
Suspect killed in shootout.
Regardless of motivation – or the races of the shooter or the victims – Baton Rouge, like many cities, includes different demographics in its police force than you’d find on its streets.
CBS named the Baton Rouge shooter as Gavin Long, of Kansas City, Missouri. Authorities believe two suspects may still be at large.
The FBI said the information was not officially confirmed but was issued to alert law enforcement to be aware.
The next day, he held an extraordinary four-hour meeting at the White House’s executive offices with police officers, community activists and elected leaders.
According to the White House, the president spoke with the governor and the mayor of Baton Rouge and offered whatever assistance they needed from the federal government.
Obama has spent most of the last week focused on defusing tensions and rebuilding trust between police departments and the communities they serve.
Whatever the motive in Baton Rouge, the incident highlighted frayed nerves and was linked by people of all political backgrounds to the July 7 shootings in Dallas and the earlier deaths in Baton Rouge and Minneapolis.
Almost six minutes pass after the first shots are reported before police say they have determined the shooter’s location. The shooting occurred less than 1 mile from police headquarters.
Authorities did not immediately say where the Sunday morning shooting occurred, or release additional details.
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One officer was sent to Baton Rouge General Medical Center and was being treated for non-life-threatening injuries, spokeswoman Meghan Parrish said.
