3 police dead, after Baton Rouge shootings

World Today

Baton Rouge Police with assault rifles block Airline Highway after police were shot in Baton Rouge, La., Sunday, July 17, 2016. Authorities say multiple law enforcement officers have been killed and injured in a shooting in Baton Rouge Sunday. (AP Photo/Max Becherer)

Three police officers are confirmed dead and three others wounded after a shooting in Baton Rouge, a sheriff’s office spokeswoman said Sunday.

GFX BATON ROUGE MAP

The shooter was killed by the police. He was identified as Gavin Long of Kansas City, Mo., who was a Marine served in Iraq a year, according to New York Times reporting.

U.S. President Barack Obama on Sunday urged Americans to tamp down inflammatory words and actions as a violent summer collides with the nation’s heated presidential campaign.

Obama said the motive behind Sunday’s killing of three officers in Baton Rouge, Louisiana, was still unknown. It was the latest in a string of deadly incidents involving law enforcement, including the police shooting of a black man in Baton Rouge and the killing of five officers in Dallas.

In remarks from the White House briefing room, the president spoke on the eve of the Republican Party’s national convention, where Donald Trump will officially accept the GOP nomination.

The businessman has cast the recent incidents as a sign that the country needs new leadership, often using heated rhetoric to make his point.

The president spoke earlier Sunday with Louisiana Gov. John Bel Edwards and Baton Rouge Mayor Kip Holden to hear the latest on the investigation into the shootings and pledge federal support.

The shooting – which happened just before 9 a.m. (local time), less than one mile (1.6 kilometres) from police headquarters – comes amid spiraling tensions across the city – and the country – between the black community and police.

Multiple police units were stationed at Our Lady of the Lake Regional Medical Center, where stricken officers were believed to be undergoing treatment at a trauma centre.

Police-community relations in Baton Rouge have been especially tense since the killing of 37-year-old Alton Sterling, a black man killed by white officers earlier this month after a scuffle at a convenience store.

The killing was captured on cellphone video and circulated widely on the internet.

Story by the Associated Press.