A lone gunman wearing all black and toting a rifle shot and killed three cops in Baton Rouge and wounded three more Sunday, authorities said.
Cops killed the shooter in a wild shootout around 8:40 a.m. local time on a main thoroughfare in the Louisiana capitol.
Authorities said there was not an “active shooter situation” in the city, indicating there were not two other suspects in the attack, as they’d said earlier.
Police were used a robot to check the body of the dead suspect for explosives.
Dispatch audio obtained by The Advocate revealed that cops responded to a call before 9 a.m. local time about a man armed with an assault rifle near a B-Quik convenience store on Airline Highway. The store is across from a shopping center, Hammond Aire Plaza.
Then all hell broke loose.
“Shots fired, officer down!” a cop shouts.
“Got a city officer down, shots fired! Shots fired on Airline!”
Police requested a Bear Cat armored vehicle and described the suspect.
“He had a mask on,” one said.
“Witness described one subject, all black, carrying an AR,” another said.
Other cops said they were rushing to the scene as the situation rapidly escalated.
“I’m hit, left arm,” one cop says.
Law enforcement from both the Baton Rouge Police Department and East Baton Rouge Sheriff’s deputies were injured in the attack, which occurred near a shopping center, Hammond Aire Plaza.
The shopping center is only a mile from police headquarters, and about five miles away from the Triple S Food Mart, where Baton Rouge cops shot and killed Alton Sterling, a black man, on July 5.
The area around the scene was flooded with police. Helicopters circled overhead. Video from the initial shootout captured at least five rifle shots on the eerily quiet main thoroughfare of Airline Highway.
“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,” Louisiana Gov. John Bel Edwards said in a statement.
Police officers block off a road after a shooting of police in Baton Rouge, La., Sunday.
(JOE PENNEY/REUTERS)
He rushed to Our Lady of the Lake Regional Medical Center, where five officers struck in the shooting were taken.
Multiple police units were stationed outside the hospital, including one armed with a long gun who blocked the parking lot at the emergency room.
Of the two cops who survived the shooting, one is in critical condition and the other is in fair condition, hospital spokeswoman Ashley Mendoza said.
President Obama was briefed on the shooting, the White House said.
“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,” Obama said.
“We may not yet know the motives for this attack, but I want to be clear: there is no justification for violence against law enforcement. None. These attacks are the work of cowards who speak for no one. They right no wrongs. They advance no causes. The officers in Baton Rouge; the officers in Dallas — they were our fellow Americans, part of our community, part of our country, with people who loved and needed them, and who need us now — all of us — to be at our best.”
Presumptive Republican nominee for president Donald Trump linked the bloodshed to his political rivals.
“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,” Trump posted on Facebook.
Police responded to an active shooter situation Sunday morning.
(AP PHOTO/MAX BECHERER)
The attack appears to be the latest example of escalated tensions in the wake of police killings of black men, as well as a retaliatory ambush on cops in Dallas.
The shooting also came on the day protesters in New York City planned to recognize the second anniversary of the death of Eric Garner at the hands of an NYPD cop.
“People please be safe today... Tragic news is coming out of Louisiana ... They will try to tie to to us and take it out on us.. Be smart today,” Garner’s daughter, Erica Garner, tweeted.
The NYPD ordered its officers to always patrol with a partner in light of the Baton Rouge ambush.
Hammond Aire Plaza is about five miles away from where Alton Sterling was shot and killed earlier this week.
(GOOGLE MAPS)
Cops were instructed to "maintain a heightened level of awareness" and "remain vigilant on post," according to police sources.
The day after Sterling was shot by cops while he was pinned down, a Minnesota woman livestreamed the final breaths of Philando Castile, a black man, after he was shot by a police officer.
Then on July 7, an unhinged Army reservist shot and killed five Dallas police officers overseeing a protest of police killings. The gunman, Micah Johnson, told authorities he was out to kill white cops.
Earlier this week, Baton Rouge officers foiled four would-be gunmen’s plan to kill cops after nine guns were swiped from a pawn shop.
Cops around Baton Rouge have been warning of a “substantial, credible threat” to police since the Dallas attack amid frequent protests against police.Law enforcement from both the Baton Rouge Police Department and East Baton Rouge Sheriff’s deputies were injured in the attack, which occurred near a shopping center, Hammond Aire Plaza.
The shopping center is only a mile from police headquarters, and about five miles away from the Triple S Food Mart, where Baton Rouge cops shot and killed Alton Sterling, a black man, on July 5.
The area around the scene was flooded with police. Helicopters circled overhead. Video from the initial shootout captured at least five rifle shots on the eerily quiet main thoroughfare of Airline Highway.
“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,” Louisiana Gov. John Bel Edwards said in a statement.
Police officers block off a road after a shooting of police in Baton Rouge, La., Sunday.
(JOE PENNEY/REUTERS)
He rushed to Our Lady of the Lake Regional Medical Center, where five officers struck in the shooting were taken.
Multiple police units were stationed outside the hospital, including one armed with a long gun who blocked the parking lot at the emergency room.
Of the two cops who survived the shooting, one is in critical condition and the other is in fair condition, hospital spokeswoman Ashley Mendoza said.
President Obama was briefed on the shooting, the White House said.
“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,” Obama said.
“We may not yet know the motives for this attack, but I want to be clear: there is no justification for violence against law enforcement. None. These attacks are the work of cowards who speak for no one. They right no wrongs. They advance no causes. The officers in Baton Rouge; the officers in Dallas — they were our fellow Americans, part of our community, part of our country, with people who loved and needed them, and who need us now — all of us — to be at our best.”
Presumptive Republican nominee for president Donald Trump linked the bloodshed to his political rivals.
“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,” Trump posted on Facebook.
Police responded to an active shooter situation Sunday morning.
(AP PHOTO/MAX BECHERER)
The attack appears to be the latest example of escalated tensions in the wake of police killings of black men, as well as a retaliatory ambush on cops in Dallas.
The shooting also came on the day protesters in New York City planned to recognize the second anniversary of the death of Eric Garner at the hands of an NYPD cop.
“People please be safe today... Tragic news is coming out of Louisiana ... They will try to tie to to us and take it out on us.. Be smart today,” Garner’s daughter, Erica Garner, tweeted.
The NYPD ordered its officers to always patrol with a partner in light of the Baton Rouge ambush.
Hammond Aire Plaza is about five miles away from where Alton Sterling was shot and killed earlier this week.
(GOOGLE MAPS)
Cops were instructed to "maintain a heightened level of awareness" and "remain vigilant on post," according to police sources.
The day after Sterling was shot by cops while he was pinned down, a Minnesota woman livestreamed the final breaths of Philando Castile, a black man, after he was shot by a police officer.
Then on July 7, an unhinged Army reservist shot and killed five Dallas police officers overseeing a protest of police killings. The gunman, Micah Johnson, told authorities he was out to kill white cops.
Earlier this week, Baton Rouge officers foiled four would-be gunmen’s plan to kill cops after nine guns were swiped from a pawn shop.
Cops around Baton Rouge have been warning of a “substantial, credible threat” to police since the Dallas attack amid frequent protests against police.
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