Three police officers in Baton Rouge have been killed and three others have been injured after a man opened fire Sunday. Some national media outlets report that the gunman has been identified as Gavin Eugene Long, 29, of Kansas City, MO. He was shot and killed at the scene.
The officers were ambushed when they responded to a call about a man with an assault rifle walking down a highway nearly a mile from Baton Rouge police headquarters. One of the officers is in critical condition. The other two have non-life threatening injuries.
Long was reportedly a former Marine who was discharged at the rank of sergeant in 2010. Authorities say Long carried out the attack on his 29th birthday.
Two “persons of interest” have also been taken into custody. Louisiana State Police said last week that they had received credible threats of deadly plots against Baton Rouge police. Three men and a 13-year-old boy had been arrested in connection with those reports.
U.S. Senator Claire McCaskill (D-Missouri) released the following statement about Sunday’s attack:
“No matter the grievance, violence against our law enforcement can’t and won’t be tolerated. Acts of violence like this only push all of our communities further from each other, and from the solutions to the challenges we face – and I condemn these murders in the strongest possible terms,” said McCaskill.
Sunday’s shooting follows the killing of five officers in Dallas earlier this month and police in the St. Louis suburb of Ballwin say an officer was ambushed by a man during a traffic stop. That Ballwin officer was shot in the neck and is suffering from permanent injuries.
The Dallas shooting occurred shortly after two black men, Alton Sterling and Philando Castile, were shot and killed by cops this month. Sterling was killed outside a Baton Rouge convenience store that he frequented. Police say he was armed. Castile was shot and killed in St. Paul, Minnesota while in a vehicle with his girlfriend.
