BATON ROUGE, La.—A former Marine dressed in black and carrying extra ammunition ambushed police in Baton Rouge, shooting and killing three law enforcement officers less than two weeks after a black man was fatally shot by police there in a confrontation that sparked nightly protests that reverberated nationwide.
Three other officers were wounded Sunday, one critically. Police said the gunman was killed at the scene.
“His movements, his direction, his attention was on police officers,” state police Col. Mike Edmonson said Monday morning. He would not elaborate but said the gunman “certainly was seeking out police officers,” and he used the word “ambush” to describe the attack.
Edmonson also confirmed that investigators have interviewed people with whom the shooter had contact in Baton Rouge. But Edmonson wouldn’t say how many or give details. He stressed that the interviews don’t mean that those people were involved in the shooting and urged any others who might have had contact with or information about shooter Gavin Long to come forward.
The shooting less than a mile from police headquarters added to the tensions across the country between the black community and police. Last week, a gunman targeted police during a march in Dallas, killing five officers. And just days before the Baton Rouge attack, one of the slain officers had posted an emotional Facebook message about the challenges of police work in the current environment.
