3 Baton Rouge officers killed in shooting; suspect dead

BATON ROUGE, La. — A former Marine dressed in black and carrying extra ammunition shot and killed three Baton Rouge law-enforcement officers Sunday, less than two weeks after a black man was shot fatally by police here in a confrontation that sparked nightly protests that reverberated nationwide.

Three other officers were wounded, one critically. Police said the gunman was killed at the scene.

The shooting less than a mile from police headquarters added to the tensions across the country between the black community and police. Days earlier, one of the slain officers had posted an emotional Facebook message about the challenges of police work in the current environment.

President Barack Obama urged Americans to tamp down inflammatory words and actions.

“We don’t need careless accusations thrown around to score political points or to advance an agenda. We need to temper our words and open our hearts ... all of us,” Obama said.

“There simply is no place for more violence,” Gov. John Bel Edwards said. “It doesn’t further the conversation. It doesn’t address any injustice, perceived or real. It is just an injustice in and of itself.”

The gunman was identified as Gavin Long of Kansas City, Missouri, who turned 29 on Sunday.

Long, who was black, served in the Marines from 2005 to 2010, reaching the rank of sergeant. He deployed to Iraq from June 2008 to January 2009, according to military records.

Although he was believed to be the only person who fired at officers, authorities said they were unsure whether he had some kind of help.

“We are not ready to say he acted alone,” state police spokesman Maj. Doug Cain said. Two “persons of interest” were detained for questioning in the nearby town of Addis.

They later were released without any charges filed. Cain said authorities planned to continue investigating whether the gunman received any assistance — “indirectly, directly here or at home.”

While in the military, Long was awarded several medals, including one for good conduct, and received an honorable discharge. His occupational expertise was listed as “data network specialist.”

The University of Alabama issued a statement saying Long attended classes for one semester in the spring of 2012. A school spokesman said university police had no interactions with him.

In Kansas City, police officers, some with guns drawn, converged on a house listed as Long’s.

It was the fourth high-profile deadly encounter in the United States involving police over the past two weeks.

In all, the violence has cost the lives of eight officers, including those in Baton Rouge, and two civilians and sparked a national debate over race and policing.

Authorities initially believed additional assailants might be at large, but hours later said there were no other active shooters. They did not discuss the gunman’s motive or any relationship to the wider police conflicts.

The shooting began at a gas station on Airline Highway. According to radio traffic, Baton Rouge police answered a report of a man with an assault rifle and were met by gunfire. For several minutes, they did not know where it was coming from.

The radio exchanges were made public Sunday by the website Broadcastify.

Nearly 2 1/2 minutes after the first report of an officer getting shot, an officer on the scene is heard saying police do not know the shooter’s location.

Almost six minutes pass after the first shots are reported before police say they have determined the shooter’s location. About 30 seconds later, someone says shots still are being fired.

The recording lasts about 17 minutes and includes urgent calls for an armored personnel carrier called a BearCat.

From his window, Joshua Godwin said he saw the suspect, who was dressed in black with a ski mask, combat boots and extra bullets. He appeared to be running “from an altercation.”

Mike Spring awoke at a nearby house to a sound he thought was from firecrackers. The noise went on for five to 10 minutes, getting louder.

Of the two officers who survived the shooting, one was hospitalized in critical condition, and the other was in fair condition. Another officer was being treated for injuries that were not life-threatening, hospital officials said.

Two of the slain officers were from the Baton Rouge Police Department: 32-year-old Montrell Jackson, who had been on the force for a decade, and 41-year-old Matthew Gerald, who had been there less than a year.

The third fatality was Brad Garafola, 45, a 24-year veteran of the East Baton Rouge Sheriff’s Office.

Jackson, who was black, posted his message on Facebook on July 8, three days after the death of 37-year-old Alton Sterling, a black man killed by white Baton Rouge officers after a scuffle at a convenience store.

In the message, Jackson said he was physically and emotionally tired and complained while in uniform, he got nasty looks. When he was out of uniform, he said, some people considered him a threat. A friend of Jackson’s family, Erika Green, confirmed the posting, which no longer is on Facebook. A screenshot of the image was circulated widely on the internet.

Police-community relations in Baton Rouge have been especially tense since Sterling’s death. The killing was captured on 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 protested Sterling’s death, and Baton Rouge police arrested more than 200 demonstrators.

Sterling’s nephew condemned the killing of the three Baton Rouge officers. Terrance Carter spoke Sunday by telephone, saying the family just wants peace.

“My uncle wouldn’t want this,” Carter said. “He wasn’t this type of man.