Ex-US Marine Kills 3 Policemen in Racially Tense Baton Rouge
The shooting has happened amid a wave of protests against police violence in Baton Rouge.
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- Shooter identified as Gavin Long
- Three police officers killed, three others wounded in a shooting at a gas station in Baton Rouge, Louisiana.
- This comes less than two weeks after a black man was shot dead at Baton Rouge.
- Suspect killed at the scene
- The shooting is the fourth high-profile deadly encounter in the US involving police over the past two weeks.
President Barack Obama on Sunday called for national unity after the killing of three police officers in Baton Rouge, and warned against using the deadly event to inflame political fighting during a charged political campaign.
Democratic presidential candidate Hillary Clinton called the shooting “devastating.”
The Baton Rouge shooter has been identified as Gavin Long, according to CNN.
The dead suspect in the Baton Rouge shooting was wearing all black and a mask, Baton Rouge Police Department Sgt. Don Coppola said.
One gunman is dead and police believe he was the only one involved in the attack, Mike Edmonson, superintendent of the Louisiana State Police, said in a press conference.
“We do not have an active shooter scenario in Baton Rouge,” Edmonson said.
It was not immediately clear whether there was a link between the shootings and the recent unrest over the police killings of black men in Baton Rouge and Minnesota.
Three Officers Killed in the Shooting
Governor John Bel Edwards on Sunday called the Baton Rouge shootings an “absolutely unspeakable heinous attack,”adding that “they will continue to do their job in light of what has happened.”
Three law enforcement officers were killed and three others wounded on Sunday morning in a shooting at a gas station in Baton Rouge, less than two weeks after a black man was shot and killed by police here.
The officers in Baton Rouge were responding to a call of a man with a gun when shots were fired.
Trump Demands ‘Law and Order’
“No Justification” for the Violence: Obama
President Barack Obama strongly condemned the shootings saying there was “no justification” for the violence. He will talk about the shooting at 4:30 pm from the White House.
Debate Over Police and Racial Profiling
The shooting was the fourth high-profile deadly encounter in the United States – and second in Baton Rouge – involving police over the past two weeks. The violence has left 12 people dead, including eight police officers, and sparked a national conversation over race and policing.
Police-community relations in Baton Rouge have been especially tense since the killing of 37-year-old Alton Sterling, a black man killed by white officers July 5 after a scuffle at a convenience store.
The killing was captured on widely circulated cellphone video. It was followed a day later by the shooting death of another black man in Minnesota, whose girlfriend livestreamed the aftermath of his death on Facebook.
The next day, a black gunman in Dallas opened fire on police at a protest about the police shootings, killing five officers and heightening tensions even further.
Thousands of people have protested Sterling’s death and Baton Rouge police arrested more than 200 demonstrators
What We Know
The races of the suspects and the officers in Sunday’s shooting were not immediately known.
The shooting began just before 9 am, at a gas station on Airline Highway, less than 1 mile from police headquarters, police said. The slain shooter’s body was next door, outside a fitness center. Police said they were using a specialized robot to check for explosives near the body.
Five law enforcement officers were rushed to Our Lady of the Lake Regional Medical Center, hospital spokeswoman Ashley Mendoza said.
Of the two who survived the shooting, one was in critical condition and the other was in fair condition.
Multiple police vehicles were station at the hospital and a police officer with a long gun was blocking the parking lot at the emergency room. One officer was sent to Baton Rouge General Medical Center and was being treated for “non-life-threatening injuries,” said spokeswoman Meghan Parrish.
(With inputs from AP and Reuters.)
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