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Police officers shot dead in Baton Rouge, Louisiana: report

THE man who shot three police officers dead and wounded three more was an ex-Marine turned lifestyle guru who called for black people to “fight back through bloodshed”.

Staff writers and AP
8 min read
July 19, 2016 - 12:32AM
News Corp Australia Network
Jesse Jackson Reacts to Baton Rouge Shooting

  • Shooting occurred about 8.45am Sunday in Baton Rouge, Louisiana

  • Three police officers killed, three injured in apparent ambush

  • The gunman was shot dead

  • Alton Sterling was killed by white cops 12 days ago in the same city

  • DFAT urging Aussies in Baton Rouge to stay indoors

THE man who gunned down three police and wounded three more in Baton Rouge this morning was an ex Marine turned life-coach turned killer.

The police officers were targeted in an apparent ambush in the United States city where black man Alton Sterling was controversially shot dead by white police 12 days ago.

Baton Rouge law enforcement sources have named the shooter as Gavin Eugene Long (who used the alias Cosmo Setepenra on social media), a resident of Kansas City in Missouri, who reportedly carried out the attack on his 29th birthday.

He was shot dead at the scene.

Police told the New York Times on Monday in a phone call that he “definitely ambushed those officers.”

Gavin Eugene Long, aka Cosmo Setepenra, in an image from his promotional website.
Gavin Eugene Long, aka Cosmo Setepenra, in an image from his promotional website.

GUNMAN WAS FORMER MARINE

Police and military sources have confirmed the suspect, Gavin Long, had been honorably discharged from the US Marines in 2010 with the rank of sergeant E-5 after spending time in Iraq. He also briefly attended the University of Alabama in 2012.

He dropped out of university after a ‘spiritual revelation’ prompted him to sell-up and travel to Africa.

Long, under his social media name ‘Cosmo’, described himself on his website as a self-taught freedom strategist, mental game coach, spiritual advisor and author.

He used his social media accounts to argue that “alpha’s” - such as himself - should stand up for themselves and those who could not.

He repeated his message that African Americans were being oppressed: “You’ve gotta fight back. That’s the only way a bully knows to quit.”

The day after Micha Johnson, a former army sniper, killed five Dallas police officers, Long posted a message to YouTube lauding the act: “With a brother killing the police you get what I’m saying—it’s justice.”

While he admits to previous involvement with African American radical group Nation of Islam, he repeatedly asserted he has “no affiliations”.

“Yeah, I was also a Nation of Islam member, I’m not affiliated with them,” he said in a video. “They try to put you with ISIS or some other terrorist group. No. I’m affiliated with the spirit of justice.”

Just hours before the shooting, he posted: “Just bc you wake up every morning doesn’t mean that you’re living. And Just bc you shed your physical body doesn’t mean that you’re dead.”

Police say they detained two people as “persons of interest” in relation to Eugene. They have since been released without charge.

“We are not ready to say he acted alone,” Lousiana police Major Doug Cain said.

AMBUSH GUNMAN SLAIN

This morning’s shooting took place on Airline Highway, near the Hammond Aire Plaza, about 8.45am Sunday (11.45pm Sunday AEST), amid spiralling tensions across Louisiana’s capital city.

CNN reported police received a call of a “suspicious person walking down Airline Highway with an assault rifle”, with reports the shooting began before police arrived on scene.

“It’s my understanding that they (the officers) had responded to an initial shooting incident,” Casey Rayborn Hicks, public affairs officer for the sheriff’s office, told WAFB-TV.

Shots fired, officer down

According to radio traffic, Baton Rouge police were met by gunfire — and for several long minutes didn’t know where it was coming from.

The shooting took place near a petrol station and fitness centre on Airline Highway, Mckneely Jr. said.

The slain shooter’s body was outside the fitness centre. Police said they used a specialised robot to check for explosives near the body.

Police have told local media Long was armed with an “AR-15 style” assault rifle.

WITNESS: ‘SHOOTER LOOKED LIKE A NINJA’

A witness apparently streamed footage from the scene on Facebook Live, saying in a panicked voice that the shooter “looks like a ninja”.

“They’ve got a sniper over here. I don’t cuss on my Facebook ... I’m nervous. Y’all gonna have to excuse me. Look at this,” she said.

“This man is shooting at the police. He has a mask on, looking like a ninja baby. He is military. I don’t know who this man is. He’s about to start popping again baby.”

The video has since been removed from Facebook, but local news service The Advocate has posted a copy below.

Mark Clements, who lives near the scene, was in his backyard when he heard shots ring out.

“I heard probably 10 to 12 gunshots go off,” he told the New York Times. “We heard a bunch of sirens and choppers and everything since then.”

Marquis Gibson was at the Hammond Aire Plaza when he heard shots and ran inside.

“Officers were falling down and hiding,” he told NBC News.

Brady Vancel told WAFB-TV he saw a masked man in black shorts and shirt running from the scene.

He said the man looked like a pedestrian running with a rifle in his hand, rather than someone trained to move with a rifle.

Vancel said he’d gone to work on a flooring job on a street behind the petrol station where authorities say the shooting occurred. He said he heard semiautomatic fire and perhaps a handgun.

He saw a man in a red shirt lying in an empty parking lot and “another gunman running away as more shots were being fired back and forth from several guns.”

WAFB-TV aired video footage of police responding to the scene. Multiple shots could be heard as civilian cars quickly backed away. Video posted online showed a SWAT team en route to the scene.

Police armed with long guns on the road stopped at least two vehicles driving away from the scene and checked their boots and vehicles before allowing them to drive away.

Sources said two Baton Rouge Police officers and one East Baton Rouge Sheriff’s Office deputy were killed.

Of the two who survived the shooting, one was in critical condition and the other was in fair condition.

SLAIN POLICE WERE ALL FATHERS

One of the three dead police officers has been identified by friends and family as Montrell Jackson, 32, a 10-year veteran of the police department.

He had prevoiusly been commended for being injured while trying to save a toddler from a burning building. He was himself the father of a four-month-old son.

A Facebook account belonging to the slain police officer contained a heartfelt plea after recent racial tensions in Baton Rouge: black man Alton Sterling was shot dead in early July while pinned down by police.

“I swear to God I love this city but I wonder if this city loves me. In uniform I get nasty hateful looks and out of uniform some consider me a threat... These are trying times. Please don’t let hate infect your heart.”

A friend of the family of the Baton Rouge police officer has confirmed to AP Jackson had posted the emotional Facebook message just days ago about the challenges of being a police officer. The message, while circulating in screen captures, has been removed from his page.

A second killed BRPD police officer has been reported as Matthew Gerald, 41, of Denham Springs. He was a former US Marine and Black Hawk helicopter crew chief in the US Army.

Gerald had been with the police force just one year. He was married and a father to two girls.

The third officer was Brad Garafola, 45, who was working overtime when he was killed in the shootout. He was due to go on vacation the following day.

His wife, Tonja Garafola, told The Advocate he had four children: a 21-year-old son, a 15-year-old daughter, a 12-year-old son and a 7-year-old daughter.

“He was a great guy. Not just a great law enforcement, he was a great husband and a great father,” Tonja Garafola said. “He didn’t deserve this. He always helped everybody.”

Louisiana State Police Superintendent Colonel Mike Edmonson told reporters the wounded officer was “is in critical condition fighting for his life as we speak,” Edmonson said. The other two officers were in stable condition.

“With God’s help, we will get through this. To me, this is not so much about gun control as it is about what’s in men’s hearts,” said Edmonson.

“And until we come together as a nation, as a people, to heal as a people, if we don’t do that and this madness continues, we will surely perish as a people.”

US LEADERS RESPOND

Louisiana Governor John Bel Edwards, who rushed to Our Lady Of The Lake Medical Centre where the injured officers were being treated, said in a statement: “This is an unspeakable and unjustified attack on all of us at a time when we need unity and healing.

“Rest assured, every resource available to the State of Louisiana will be used to ensure the perpetrators are swiftly brought to justice.

“For now, I’m asking all Louisianans to join Donna and me in praying for the officers who were involved and their families as the details continue to unfold.”

He later told a media conference that the gunman committed ‘‘an absolutely unspeakable, heinous attack”.

US President Barack Obama condemned the shooting as “cowardly”.

“For the second time in two weeks, police officers who put their lives on the line for ours every day were doing their job when they were killed in a cowardly and reprehensible assault,” Obama said in a statement.

“These are attacks on public servants, on the rule of law and on civilised society, and they have to stop.”

US Attorney General Loretta Lynch said there was no place in America for such appalling violence, adding that agents from the FBI and Alcohol, Tobacco and Firearms were on the scene.

She said the Justice Department will make available victim services and federal funding support, and provide investigative assistance to the fullest extent possible.

Republican presidential candidate Donald Trump tweeted: “We grieve for the officers killed in Baton Rouge today. How many law enforcement and people have to die because of a lack of leadership in our country? We demand law and order.”

DFAT WARNS AUSSIE TRAVELLERS

Australians in the US city of Baton Rouge are being warned to stay indoors.

The Department of Foreign Affairs and Trade on Monday urged Australians in the area to stay inside and monitor local media.

DFAT has warned Aussie travellers in Baton Rouge to stay indoors and monitor local media. Picture: DFAT
DFAT has warned Aussie travellers in Baton Rouge to stay indoors and monitor local media. Picture: DFAT

AMERICA REELING FROM SPATE OF SHOOTINGS

The Baton Rouge shooting is the latest in a series of high-profile killings in the US that have shocked the world over the last several weeks, exposing deep fault lines in society and reviving long-running debates about racial prejudice and an epidemic of gun violence.

A gunman killed five police officers in Dallas earlier this month during a demonstration triggered by the fatal police shooting of two African-American men whose dying moments were captured in shocking video footage that went viral online.

Police guard the emergency room entrance of Our Lady Of The Lake Medical Centre, where wounded officers were taken, in Baton Rouge. Picture: AP Photo/Gerald Herbert
Police guard the emergency room entrance of Our Lady Of The Lake Medical Centre, where wounded officers were taken, in Baton Rouge. Picture: AP Photo/Gerald Herbert

 

One of those killed was Alton Sterling, a black man shot dead by white cops in Baton Rouge on July 5.

The scene of the latest shooting, Hammond Aire Plaza, is about eight kilometres from where 37-year-old Sterling died.

Baton Rouge police block Airline Highway after police were shot in Baton Rouge, Louisiana. Picture: AP Photo/Max Becherer
Baton Rouge police block Airline Highway after police were shot in Baton Rouge, Louisiana. Picture: AP Photo/Max Becherer

Last week, police arrested more than 100 protesters taking part in a demonstration against police brutality in Baton Rouge under the banner of the Black Lives Matter movement.

Last month, Democratic politicians, pushing for tougher gun-control laws after a massacre in a Florida gay nightclub killed 49 people, staged a virtually unprecedented 24-hour sit-in in Congress after Republicans refused to allow a vote on two widely supported measures.

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