iStock/Thinkstock(BATON ROUGE, La.) — Authorities outlined Monday how they believe the gunman who shot and killed three law enforcement officers in Baton Rouge carried out what Louisiana State Police Superintendent Col. Mike Edmonson called a “calculated act.”
The gunman, 29-year-old Gavin Long, a former U.S. Marine, “dismissed” civilians and “intentionally targeted and assassinated” cops, Edmonson said.
Long first “noticed a Baton Rouge police officer vacuuming his car at the car wash,” Edmonson said. The officer then left the scene and “that’s when the call comes in to say there was an individual … with a rifle.”
“So police are at the scene now and they go to where he was,” Edmonson said at a news conference in front of a map of the shooting site. “When he came back around, that’s two Baton Rouge police officers were standing right here. He [the gunman] shot both of them.”
A deputy who had taken cover then left that cover with his gun drawn to go help a fallen officer, Edmonson said.
“As the deputy is coming in, the shooter comes around this corner right here. He sees the deputy and shoots the deputy,” he said. “Shoots him right then.”
Those were the three officers who died, Edmonson said.
The gunman then shot a deputy in a car, who is now in critical condition, Edmonson said.
A Baton Rouge police S.W.A.T. team shot and killed Long.
The Sunday shooting left three officers dead and three other officers wounded.
“Our hearts are broken but our spirit is intact,” Edmonson said.
Gov. John Bel Edwards said Long, who was from Kansas City, Missouri, came to Baton Rouge “to do harm to our community” and specifically harm law enforcement officers, calling it a “diabolical attack.”
Edwards said the “heroic” officers “ran towards danger in order to protect the public” and render aid to fellow officers.
Edwards said that for six days prior to Sunday’s attack there had been no arrests in Baton Rouge related to Alton Sterling protests.
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