The shooter has been identified as 29-year-old Gavin Long of Kansas City, Missouri. The Associated Press reports two other “persons of interest” are being questioned.
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Three police officers will killed and three more were wounded Sunday morning in a shooting in Baton Rouge, a city already reeling from the the death of an African-American man killed in a confrontation with police earlier this month.
Louisiana Governor John Bel Edwards called the shootings an “unspeakable, heinous attack” that served no goal.
A number of streets near the state capital’s police headquarters have been shut down as officers hunt for the gunmen, while local media suggest multiple officers have been shot. Following last week’s Dallas shootings, Obama did lament the ease with which Americans can access high-powered firearms. The officers were killed while responding to a report of shots fired.
Col. Mike Edmonson of the Louisiana State Police confirmed the timeline of events.
President Barack Obama said in a statement: “I condemn, in the strongest sense of the word, the attack on law enforcement in Baton Rouge”.
The scene later shifted to the nearby B-Quik gas station, which is located less than a mile from BRPD Headquarters. Nearly six minutes pass after the first shots are reported before police say they have determined the shooter’s location. He also said the country would have to “just grind it out” in solving the tensions. Police armed with long guns stopped at least two vehicles driving away from the scene and checked their trunks.
Henderson police said there have been no credible reports of threats to its officers.
Obama extended his sympathies and prayers to the families, who are grieving, especially the officer in critical condition. But relatives and a man who said he was a former partner of one of the slain officers posted on Facebook and Twitter that he was Baton Rouge police officer Montrell Jackson. “Our thoughts and prayers are with the friends and families of the police officers who were killed and injured today”. Alabama joins the nation in praying for the men and women in law enforcement who willingly put themselves in harm’s way to protect all of us.
The attack took place less than two weeks after the death of Alton Sterling, a 37-year-old black man, at the hands of police sparked protests and triggered a Justice Department civil rights investigation. The killing was captured on widely circulated cellphone video. Many Metro units were still doubled up when the Baton Rouge Shooting occurred Sunday.
Sterling’s nephew condemned the killing of the three officers. Terrance Carter spoke Sunday to The Associated Press by telephone, saying the family just wants peace.
He said these type of attacks on public servants and police “have to stop” and that the motive for the attack remains unknown. He says attacks like the one in Baton Rouge are happening far too often and constitute an attack on the rule of law.
“But he didn’t say what”.
Marquis Gibson, an eyewitness, was at the Hammond Aire Plaza mall when he heard shots and ran inside.
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Rogers and her husband drove near the scene, but were blocked at an intersection closed down by police.
