At least 3 Louisiana cops killed in Baton Rouge shooting
Another 3 officers injured in Sunday morning incident; police confirm one suspected gunman dead, 2 more believed at large
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Three officers are confirmed dead and three others wounded after a shooting in Baton Rouge, a sheriff’s office spokeswoman said Sunday. One suspect is dead and law enforcement officials believe two others are still at large, the spokeswoman said.
Casey Rayborn Hicks, a spokeswoman for the East Baton Rouge Sheriff’s Office, said in a statement that the public should call 911 immediately if they see anything suspicious.
The shooting — which happened just before 9 a.m., less than 1 mile from police headquarters — comes amid spiraling tensions across the city — and the country — between the black community and police. The races of the suspect or suspects and the officers were not immediately known.
“Several officers were struck by gunfire,” Baton Rouge police spokesman Don Coppola told WAFB on Sunday.
VIDEO: Footage shows the moment suspect(s) open fire at police in Baton Rouge.- @CBSNews/@WAFB pic.twitter.com/EMiI7PIFSn
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The station aired video footage of police responding to the scene near the city’s Airline Highway. Multiple shots could be heard as civilian cars quickly reversed away from the area.
The shooting appeared to be carried out by a gunman carrying an assault rifle, local media said.
An Associated Press reporter on the scene saw police vehicles with lights flashing massed about a half-mile from the police headquarters on Airline Highway. Police on the road armed with long guns stopped at least two vehicles driving away from the scene and checked their trunks and vehicles before allowing them to move on.
Police-community relations in Baton Rouge have been especially tense since earlier this month, when white officers killed 37-year-old Alton Sterling, after a scuffle at a convenience store. The killing was captured on cellphone video and circulated widely on the internet.
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. Then on Thursday, a black gunman in Dallas opened fire on police at a protest about the police shootings, killing five officers and heightening tensions even further.
Over the weekend, thousands of people took to the streets in Baton Rouge to condemn Sterling’s death, including hundreds of demonstrators who congregated outside the police station. Authorities arrested about 200 people over the three-day weekend.
US President Barack Obama issued a statement denouncing the Sunday shooting attack and the recent race-fueled in the United States.
“I condemn, in the strongest sense of the word, the attack on law enforcement in Baton Rouge. 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. These are attacks on public servants, on the rule of law, and on civilized society, and they have to stop,” he said.
The Times of Israel Community.