INTERVIEW – SCOTT MCLEAN – Correspondent in Baton Rouge
Baton Rouge Police Shooting: What We Know and Do Not Know
Three police officers were shot dead and three others wounded in Baton Rouge, La., on Sunday morning. The gunman was killed, the authorities said. The area where the shooting took place has been the scene of protests in the weeks since the police shooting of Alton B. Sterling on July 5.
What We Know
- Around8:40 a.m.on Sunday, the police in Baton Rouge were responding to a report of a man with a gun dressed in black walking near the Hammond Aire Plaza shopping center on Airline Highway. In a confrontation that lasted less than 10 minutes, three officers were killed and three others wounded, officials said.
- Kip Holden, the mayor-president of East Baton Rouge Parish, identified the gunman as Gavin Long of Kansas City, Mo. Mr. Long was a former Marine who had served from 2005 to 2010, and he had been deployed to Iraq in 2008, according to military records. He had received a national defense service medal and a reward for good conduct.
- Mr. Long is believed to have been the only gunman, the police in Baton Rouge said at a news conference, despite earlier reports of two others being at large. Col. Mike Edmonson, the superintendent of the Louisiana State Police, said there was “no active shooter scenario going on in Baton Rouge.”
- The slain law enforcement officers were Montrell L. Jackson, 32; Matthew Gerald, 41; and Brad Garafola, 45. Mr. Jackson and Mr. Gerald were with the Baton Rouge Police Department; Mr. Garafola was an East Baton Rouge Parish sheriff’s deputy.
- According to the authorities, a 41-year-old sheriff’s deputy was in critical condition; a 51-year-old deputy was undergoing surgery for injuries that were not life-threatening; and a 41-year-old Baton Rouge police officer was hospitalized with injuries that were not life-threatening.
- At the time of the shooting, a plot against the police had been under investigation after a burglary suspect said he wanted to harm officers.
- The White House said that President Obama had been briefed and that federal officials were in touch with the local authorities. In a statement, Mr. Obama characterized the shooting as a “cowardly and reprehensible assault.”
