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*UPDATE 4* The shooter has been identified as Gavin Eugene Long of Kansas City (via CBS News, h/t Jazz Shaw). Today was Long’s 29th birthday. According to Twitchy, he was black. The Wall Street Journal reports further the killer was affiliated with the New Freedom Group, described as anti-government.
*UPDATE 3* According to the latest from the Associated Press, the siege in Baton Rouge appears to be over. Police now say the gunman who ambushed six of the city’s finest worked alone. There are no other active shooters, and the gunman himself was shot and killed several hours ago.
Will this presidential election be the most important in American history?
*UPDATE 2* Fox News Channel reports there is an ongoing standoff between police and at least one of the gunmen. The network also reports via Rod Wheeler, former member of the D.C. Police Department, that the shooting was an ambush that occurred near police headquarters.
*UPDATE 1* The latest, from CNN, confirms the number of dead police at three. The article also features a video clip of a news conference with a local sheriff, who affirms there were mulitple gunmen wearing army fatigues or all-black clothing and possibly masks.
[ORIGINAL POST:]
Twelve days after the shooting death of Alton Sterling by police in Baton Rouge, two police officers in the same Louisiana City have been confirmed dead at the hands of a masked gunman. As early reporting continues to come in, some sources, including the Associated Press, have placed the number of dead cops at three.
The Daily Mail reports:
The man, who was wearing black, was seen firing indiscriminately at around 9am as he walked out between a shop and a car wash, a witness told WBRZ.
A source told CNN that four officers are all in a critical condition in hospital.
Police received a 911 call reporting a ‘uspicious person walking down Airline Highway with an assault rifle’, the source said. The gunman is said to have opened fire when cops arrived.
A video shot by a bystander at the scene captured the mayhem as the gunshots ring out.
A second video. by Michael Vinsanau, a reporter with station WBRZ, shows police heading to the scene.
State Police SWAT now on scene pic.twitter.com/r3Eni4aODL
— Michael Vinsanau (@MVinsanau) July 17, 2016
Further details on the identity of the gunman are not yet known, nor has it been established whether police captured the suspect. A spokeswoman for East Baton Rouge Parish Sheriff’s Office is quoted telling the Advocate that the area where the shooting occurred remains an active scene.
If this turns out to be a revenge shooting, it will be the second in ten days, following the murder of five white police officers in Dallas by a black man, Micah X. Johnson.
This is a developing story. Updates will be provided as new information becomes available.
