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3 Police Officers Shot Dead In Baton Rouge, 3 Others Wounded; Gunman Killed

BATON ROUGE, La. (CBS/AP) -- Three Baton Rouge law enforcement officers investigating a report of a man with an assault rifle were killed Sunday, less than two weeks after a black man was fatally shot by police here in a confrontation that sparked nightly protests that reverberated nationwide.

Three other officers were wounded, one critically. Police said the suspect was killed at the scene. The dead gunman was believed to be the only person who fired at officers, but authorities were unsure whether he had some kind of help, a state police spokesman said.

"We are not ready to say he acted alone," Major Doug Cain said. Two "persons of interests" were detained in the nearby town of Addis.

The shooting -- which took place just before 9 a.m., less than a mile from police headquarters -- came amid escalating tensions across the country between the black community and police. The races of the suspect and the officers were not immediately known.

It was the fourth high-profile deadly encounter in the United States involving police over the past two weeks. The violence has left 12 people dead, including eight police officers, and sparked a national debate over race and policing.

 

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

"We as a nation have to be loud and clear that nothing justifies attacks on law enforcement," Obama said in remarks from the White House. "Every one right now focus on words and actions that can unite this country rather than divide it further."

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

Baton Rouge Gas Station Where Officers Were Killed
The B-Quik gas station and convenience store on Airline Highway in Baton Rouge. (CBS)

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 long 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 are still being fired.

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

CBS News identified gunman as 29-year-old Gavin Eugene Long, of Kansas City Missouri. Long briefly attended the University of Alabama, according to an Associated Press report.

University spokesman Chris Bryant said Sunday evening that Long was a student for one semester in the spring of 2012.

Bryant says university police had no interaction with Long during that time.

In Kansas City, police converged on a house that was listed for a Gavin Long. Some officers had weapons drawn from behind trees. Others took cover behind cars.

 

Gov. John Bel Edwards rushed to the hospital where the officers were taken. They were from the Baton Rouge Police Department and the East Baton Rouge Sheriff's Office.

"There simply is no place for more violence," Edwards said. "That doesn't help anyone. It doesn't further the conversation. It doesn't address any injustice perceived or real. It is just an injustice in and of itself."

A witness told television station WAFB that he saw a masked man in black shorts and shirt running from the scene where the three officers were killed.

Brady Vancel 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 had gone to work on a flooring job near the gas station when he heard semi-automatic gunfire 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."

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 non-life-threatening injuries, hospital officials said.

Each of the officers was married and had a family, East Baton Rouge Parish Sheriff Sid Gautreaux said.

The Baton Rouge attack unfolded hours after a domestic violence suspect opened fire early Sunday on a Milwaukee police officer who was sitting in his squad car. The officer was seriously wounded, and the suspect fled and apparently killed himself, authorities said.

Police-community relations in Baton Rouge have been especially tense since the death of 37-year-old Alton Sterling, a black man killed by white officers July 5 after a scuffle at a convenience store. The killing was captured on widely circulated cellphone video.

It was followed a day later by the shooting death of another black man in Minnesota, whose girlfriend live-streamed 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 have 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 to The Associated Press by telephone, saying the family just wants peace.

"My uncle wouldn't want this," Carter said. "He wasn't this type of man.

A few yards from a police roadblock on Airline Highway, Keimani Gardner was in the parking lot of a warehouse store that would ordinarily be bustling on a Sunday afternoon. He and his girlfriend both work there. But the store was closed because of the shooting.

"It's crazy ... I understand some people feel like enough is enough with, you know, the black community being shot," said Gardner, an African-American. "But honestly, you can't solve violence with violence."

Michelle Rogers and her husband drove near the shooting scene, but were blocked at an intersection closed by police.

"I can't explain what brought us here," she said. "We just said a prayer in the car for the families."

REACTIONS:

Pres. Barack Obama:

"We as a nation have to be loud and clear that nothing justifies attacks on law enforcement," Obama said in remarks from the White House. "Every one right now focus on words and actions that can unite this country rather than divide it further."

***

In a statement issued Sunday, Attorney General Loretta Lynch says she condemns the shooting deaths of three officers and the wounding of several others "in the strongest possible terms." She also is pledging the full support of the Justice Department as the investigation unfolds.

The attorney general says Agents from the FBI and Alcohol, Tobacco and Firearms are on the scene, and Justice Department will make available victim services and federal funding support, and provide investigative assistance to the fullest extent possible.

Lynch says everyone's hearts and prayers are with the fallen and wounded officers, their families and the entire Baton Rouge community in "this extraordinarily difficult time."

***

California Attorney General Kamala Harris issued the following statement Sunday:

"This morning's shooting in Baton Rouge is a heartbreaking tragedy and a grave reminder of the dangers that peace officers face every day. I extend my deepest condolences to the families and loved ones of the fallen officers, and to the men and women who bravely serve alongside them in the Baton Rouge Police Department, East Baton Rouge Sheriff's Department and across the country."

***

Republican Donald Trump is blaming a "lack of leadership" for Sunday's shooting.

Trump is placing the blame on a lack of leadership and is demanding "law and order."

On social media Trump asks, "How many law enforcement and people have to die because of a lack of leadership in our country? We demand law and order."

***

In a statement Sunday, presumptive Democratic presidential nominee Hillary Clinton says there is no justification for attacks on men and women "who put their lives on the line every day" to protect families and communities.

Clinton said the shootings of police officers in Baton Rouge are an assault "on all of us."

TM and © Copyright 2016 CBS Radio Inc. and its relevant subsidiaries. CBS RADIO and EYE Logo TM and Copyright 2016 CBS Broadcasting Inc. Used under license. All Rights Reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten, or redistributed. WAFB-TV and the Associated Press contributed to this report

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