A Baton Rouge SWAT team responding to the gunfire shot and killed Long from 100 yards away, State Police Superintendent Col. Mike Edmonson told reporters in a news conference. He said after the meeting that what happened in Baton Rouge is a reminder of the extraordinary risks and dangers that law enforcement officers take every day “to protect us and our way of life”.
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On July 17, a gunman identified as Gavin Long of Kansas City, Mo. ambushed and killed two police officers and a deputy, while wounding three more, CNN reports.
Police declined on Monday to say whether the attack by Long, who was black, was racially motivated.
Louisiana State Police officers leave the scene of the crime where three police officers were killed this morning in Baton Rouge, Louisiana, on Sunday.
It has emerged that the Baton Rouge gunman said he wanted to change his name from Gavin Eugene Long to Cosmo Ausar Setepenra in May 2015, according to Jackson County, Missouri, public records. But court officials said he never completed the process of legally changing his name.
In another, he praised the Deacons for Defence – a group of African Americans who formed an armed self-defence group during the civil rights movement of the 1960s – as men who “when they kids was also getting killed by cops and other white supremacy members, they stood up and stood firm”.
Nearly 6 minutes pass after the first shots are reported before police say they have determined the shooter’s location.
At 3 p.m. Sunday, Louisiana Gov. John Bel Edwards was joined by top officials for a press conference to release the latest information regarding a shooting.
“I didn’t want to break down in church but it was just something I couldn’t hold”, Jackson, 49, of Lake Charles, Louisiana, said. Sheriff’s Deputy Brad Garafola, 45, was also killed. Jackson, who recently celebrated his 10-year anniversary with Baton Rouge police, was married and the father of a 4-month-old son, Mason, according to The Advocate.
The Tennessee Bureau of Investigation issued a statement after a preliminary investigation into the July 7 shooting in Bristol that left one woman dead and an officer among the injured, saying they believed the incident was sparked by the recent police killings of African-American men.
As more and more details about the case slowly emerge, so do details of who the shooter was.
The attack unfolded less than two weeks after Baton Rouge police fatally shot a black man, Alton Sterling, in a confrontation that reverberated nationwide.
Long studied at The University of Alabama for a single semester in spring 2012 and was a general business major, a spokesman said. Days before the shooting, Jackson posted a comment on Facebook discussing how he, as an officer in uniform, was getting nasty looks.
He sought out officers in a city where one of the police killings had occurred, and he took their lives in retribution.
“I swear to God I love this city but I wonder if this city loves me”, he wrote.
According to the Pentagon, Long served in the Marines from 2005 until 2010, achieving the rank of sergeant.
“The UA police had no interactions with him during this time”, Chris Bryant told AFP.
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A data network specialist, he was deployed to Iraq from June 2008 until January 2009, earning several medals and commendations.
