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Baton Rouge police shooting
- Thread starter Sephlroth
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Heavily armed gunman 'intentionally targetted and assassinated' Baton Rouge police officers
By Andy Sullivan - AAP on July 19, 2016, 2:55 pm
An Iraq war veteran can be seen on CCTV images avoiding civilians has he "intentionally targetted and assassinated" three police in Baton Rouge, Louisiana.
Three officers were killed and three were wounded, one critically, when Gavin Eugene Long, a former US Marine Corps sergeant, opened fire on police responding to a report of a gunman dressed all in black walking down a street in Louisiana's capital on Sunday morning.
Louisiana State Police believe killer Gavin Long tried to avoid civilians as he targetted his attack directly at police officers. Photo: Louisiana State Police
Updating reporters on their investigation a day after the deadly rampage, police described how video footage showed the 29-year-old suspect hunting down police officers and sheriff's deputies, while bypassing civilians he encountered.
Dressed entirely in black and armed with assault rifles and a pistol, Long intened to make his way to a police station to kill more officers, authorities said. Photo: Louisiana State Police
The carnage came to an abrupt end less than 10 minutes after it began when Long, was shot dead by a police SWAT team marksman, firing from a position about 100 metres away.
Police say they believe that Long, armed with two rifles and a pistol, had intended to make his way to the headquarters of the Baton Rouge Police Department a short distance away to carry on with his assault.
Photo: Louisiana State Police
"There is no doubt whatsoever that these officers were intentionally targeted and assassinated," Louisiana State Police Superintendent Colonel Mike Edmonson said during a news conference on Monday.
"It was a calculated act against those who work to protect this community every single day."
Added Baton Rouge Police Chief Cal Dabadie, "I have no doubt he was headed to our headquarters, and he was going to take more lives."
Long killed three police officers and wounded three others. Photo: Louisiana State Police
The ambush rocked a city still shaken from days of angry protests and tension over the fatal police shooting on July 5 of a 37-year-old black man, Alton Sterling, who was confronted by officers while selling CDs outside a Baton Rouge convenience store. Sterling was buried just last Friday.
A day after his slaying, another black man, Philando Castile, 32, was shot to death by a policeman during a traffic stop near St Paul, Minnesota.
Police said video footage of the attack provding chilling evidence supporting the theory that Long's attack was a calculated assassination. Photo: Louisiana State Police
The back-to-back killings reignited nationwide protests over the use of force by police against minorities, including a fateful rally in Dallas on July 7 that ended up shattered with the deadly ambush of five police officers by a gunman apparently out to avenge the deaths of Sterling and Castile.
Police declined on Monday to say whether the attack by Long, who was black, was racially motivated. Two of the lawmen killed on Sunday were white, and a third, Montrell Jackson, 32, was black.
Photo: Louisiana State Police
But an imprint from the gunman left behind on social media included videos in which he decried mistreatment of African-Americans by law enforcement and praised the attack on Dallas police, perpetrated by another black US military veteran.
Edmonson said Long, a resident of Kansas City, Missouri, had been in the Baton Rouge area for several days before the shooting, and while he acted alone in the ambush itself, police have yet to rule out his having assistance in planning the attack.
Video evidence suggests Long came heavily armed and well prepared for his assault on officers. Photo: Louisiana State Police
Legal papers filed in his home state of Missouri showed that he identified himself as a member of a group called the Washitaw Nation, a black offshoot of the Sovereign Citizen movement, which challenges the legitimacy of the federal government.
Military records released by the Pentagon showed Long, listed as a data network specialist, served five years in the Marine Corps until his discharge in August 2010, including a six-month deployment to Iraq.
Long's attack was brought to a swift end when a SWAT rifleman shot him dead from about 100 metres away. Photo: Lousisiana State Police
The two other dead officers in Baton Rouge were identified as Matthew Gerald, 41, also an Iraq war veteran; and Sheriff's Deputy Brad Garafola, 45, a father of four.
President Barack Obama offered his condolences for the fallen officers and their families in telephone calls on Monday to the victims' loved ones as well as top law enforcement officials in the city.
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