(Newswire.net — July 18, 2016) — The shooter, later identified as Gavin Long, 29, shot at police officers near a shopping mall in Baton Rouge, Louisiana. Unlike the attack in Dallas, which took place during a protest against police brutality, this attack was an ambush that took place a few hundred meters from the police station.
Three policemen were killed and three more were wounded and are in critical condition.
According to eyewitnesses, the assailant was dressed in black and opened fire on officers using a rifle.
Officers came under fire as they were responding to a report of a suspicious man dressed in black standing, holding a rifle, which investigators believe may have been a call to lure the police into an ambush, Baton Rouge Mayor, Kip Holden, told NBS.
Police have also been arrested two men wearing black shirts and camouflage pants, the unofficial uniform of the Black Panthers organization. It is not clear whether they were involved in any way with this case.
This attack took place just a week after the FBI sent out a warning (Situational Information Report, SIR) of threats of attacks on police in Baton Rouge.
Baton Rouge has been the center of protests against police brutality, organized by activists of the movement Black Lives Matter, after Alton Sterling, a 37 year-old African American was shot and killed by Baton Rouge police officers.
President Obama addressed the nation from the White House Sunday afternoon saying that America must act to create unity, and that new attack underlines the danger that police across the country face every day and added that the attacks on police officers are attacks against all US citizens and the rule of law that makes society possible.
Obama said that the shooter’s motives were still unknown, and that it’s still unclear whether the killer set out to target police officers or whether he attacked them other reasons.