Baton Rouge shooting: 3 police dead & 3 injured

Three police officers are dead and three others injured from a shooting in Baton Rouge, Louisiana, after officers responded to a 911 call of a man in all black walking around with a rifle, officials said.

The suspect died at the scene, Louisiana State Police Superintendent Col. Mike Edmonson said this afternoon. He said there is no active shooter scenario but the investigation is ongoing.

“We believe the person that shot and killed our officers, that he is a person that was shot and killed at the scene,” Edmonson said. He said police do not believe there are “any other shooter[s] held up … in the Baton Rouge area.”

The shooting happened around 8:45 a.m. in the Old Hammond area — less than a mile from police headquarters, officials said. The incident began when officers responded to a 911 call reporting that a man wearing all black was walking around with a rifle, officials said.

Three officers died: two worked for the Baton Rouge police department and one worked for the East Baton Rouge Sheriff’s office, police said.

Three officers were injured: one officer was in critical condition and the two others suffered non-life-threatening injuries, police said.

One of the Baton Rouge police officers killed in the shooting was 41 years old with just under one year of service, police said. The other was 32 years old with 10 years of service. The third officer killed today, an East Baton Rouge Parish deputy, was 45 years old.

“This is truly a sad day in Baton Rouge,” Mayor Kip Holden said. “We continue to ask the question and continue to make the statement, let peace prevail in Baton Rouge and this parish. We must look ahead.

“We thank our officers who have fallen in the line of duty , we pray for their families and we pray for peace everywhere,” Holden said.

Louisiana Gov. Jon Bel Edwards said in a statement, “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 brought swiftly to justice,” Edwards said.

The Sunday morning shootings come in the wake of the death of Alton Sterling, a black man who was shot and killed after an altercation with Baton Rouge police officers on July 5. Sterling’s death and the police-involved death of a black man in Minnesota a day later sparked nationwide protests. Then on July 7, a gunman targeted police officers at a protest in Dallas, killing five officers and wounding others.

n the wake of Sterling’s death, there were calls to “purge” cops in Baton Rouge.

A warning issued by the FBI‘s New Orleans field office on July 7 mentioned “threats to law enforcement and potential threats to the safety of the general public” stemming from Sterling’s shooting.

One image on social media said the Baton Rouge “purge” would start July 9 at midnight and end July 10 at 5 a.m.

The FBI said the information was not officially confirmed but was issued to alert law enforcement to be aware.

Last week, Alton Sterling’s 15-year-old son, Cameron Sterling, urged Baton Rouge residents to “protest in peace.”

Meanwhile, the Louisiana State Police Department is leading the investigation into the Sunday morning shooting.

The FBI New Orleans office said it “has personnel on scene in Baton Rouge to assist our law enforcement colleagues. At this time, our focus is to help identify and bring to justice those who are responsible for this heinous act.”

The Department of Homeland Security said it is “in contact with the FBI, Baton Rouge law enforcement, and our fusion center partners there, and the Secretary has directed that the full weight of the Department’s resources be made available.”

President Obama 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.”

He said he has offered the support of the federal government to state and local authorities in Louisiana.

“And make no mistake – justice will be done,” he 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.”