At least three police officers and a suspect have been shot and killed in Baton Rouge, the second largest city in the US state of Louisiana.
The officers in Baton Rouge were responding to a call of a man with a gun when shots were fired. Two Baton Rouge police officers and one sheriff’s deputy were killed.
“One gunman is dead and police believe he was the only one involved in the attack,” Mike Edmonson, superintendent of the Louisiana State Police, said in a press conference.
“We do not have an active shooter scenario in Baton Rouge,” Al Jazeera quoted Edmonson as saying.
Multiple US news outlets identified the suspected gunman in Sunday’s fatal shootings of law enforcement officers in Baton Rouge as Gavin Long, with CBS News saying Long was a Black male from Kansas City, Missouri.
It was not immediately clear whether there was a link between the shootings and the recent unrest over the police killings of black men in Baton Rouge and Minnesota.
Police did not give any information about a possible motive.
- Repeated Calls for Unity
US President Barack Obama condemned the “cowardly” shooting and demanded an end to such violence.
“It is so important that everyone ... right now focus on words and actions that can unite this country rather than divide it further,” Obama said.
“We don’t need inflammatory rhetoric. We don’t need careless accusations thrown around to score political points or to advance an agenda. We need to temper our words and open our hearts, all of us.”
Obama has repeatedly called for racial unity.
“We as a nation have to be loud and clear that nothing justifies violence against law enforcement,” Obama told reporters at the White House.
“This has happened far too often.”
In an interview with national broadcaster NBC, Baton Rouge Mayor Kip Holden confirmed that three officers had been killed in the shooting near the city’s police headquarters on Sunday.
Three other officers were reportedly injured and hospitalized.
Republican presumptive candidate Donald Trump, writing on Facebook, demanded “law and order” following the shooting incident.
Protests
Baton Rouge became the scene of large protests against police brutality after officers shot dead 37-year-old Alton Sterling on July 5.
Police officers killed Sterling outside a supermarket, claiming he had a gun. The father of five, whose funeral was held on Friday, had been selling CDs.
Footage of the moment Sterling was killed was captured on a mobile phone, which contains images some readers may find distressing, was circulated online, sparking outrage and then protests.
On Wednesday, Baton Rouge Police Department and state law enforcement agents were sued in a federal court after arresting at least 180 protesters in protests against Sterling’s killing.
The suit, filed by activist groups, accuses the police and law enforcement officers of “excessive force” and violating demonstrators’ right to freedom of expression, among other allegations.
