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On Sunday morning, America woke up to the news of yet another fatal shooting. Three police officers were shot and killed in Baton Rouge, Louisiana, by a gunman who has been identified as Gavin Eugene Long.
Long was a man of African descent and an ex-US Marine who had served in Iraq. He was killed by the police at the scene of the shooting. It was reportedly his 29th birthday.
He had no known ties to any extremist groups, despite Donald Trump’s assertion that he had connections with “radical islam”.
In May 2015, he reportedly sought to change his name to ‘Cosmo Setepenra’ in a document filed with the Jackson County Recorder of Deeds.
In an online website called convoswithcosmos.com Long used this alias.
On 10 July, he posted a video from Dallas, after five policemen were killed at a Black Lives Matter protest.
In the video, he implores (African) people to “fight back against oppression”.
Speaking of revolutions in the past, he says:
100 percent (of revolutions against oppressors) have been successful through fighting back, through bloodshed. Zero have been successful by simply protesting.
In an earlier video, he said that if anything ever happens to him, he doesn’t want to be linked to any groups, and mentioned once belonging to ‘Nation of Islam’.
In a Twitter account by the same name, ‘Cosmo’ tweeted about the various run-ins of black people in America with the authorities.
About the Dallas shootout he said:
He also seemed to be inclined towards violence as ‘an’ answer, if not the only answer.
On his website he described himself as a “Freedom Strategist, Mental Game Coach, Nutritionist, Author and Spiritual Advisor.”
According to military records, Long was a Marine from 2005 to 2010 and rose to the rank of sergeant.
He served in Iraq from 2008 to 2009, and records show he received several medals during his military career, including one for good conduct. Long, who received an honorable discharge, was listed as a “data network specialist” in the Marines.
After the Marines, he attended the University of Alabama for one semester, in the spring of 2012, according to university spokesman Chris Bryant. University police had no interaction with Long during that time, Bryant said.
Missouri court records show Long filed a petition for divorce from his wife in February 2011. The online court records don’t say why the couple divorced, but the petition indicates they had no children and that Long had represented himself.
Three months after the divorce petition was filed, his ex-wife was granted restoration of her maiden name.
Sunday’s Baton Rouge shooting has taken place only two weeks after the Alton Sterling shooting, which sparked strong ‘Black Lives Matter’ protests across the United States.
(With inputs from AP.)
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