Police officers killed in Baton Rouge shooting
At least three dead in attack just half a mile from force’s headquarters
THREE officers were confirmed dead and three others wounded after a shooting in Baton Rouge, a sheriff’s office spokeswoman said yesterday.
One suspect is dead and officials believe two others are still at large, the spokeswoman said.
The shooting happened just before 9am yesterday, less than one mile from police headquarters, and comes amid spiralling tensions across the city and the country between the black community and police.
The races of the suspect or suspects and the officers were not immediately known.
Baton Rouge police sergeant Don Coppola said earlier the officers were rushed to a local hospital.
Sgt Coppola said authorities were asking people to stay away from the area.
Multiple police units were stationed at Our Lady of the Lake Regional Medical Centre, where stricken officers were believed to be undergoing treatment at a trauma centre.
An armed police officer was blocking the parking lot at the emergency room.
Officers and deputies from the Baton Rouge police department and East Baton Rouge sheriff’s office were involved, according to a police spokeswoman.
A reporter on the scene in Louisiana saw police vehicles with lights flashing massed about a half mile from the police headquarters on Airline Highway.
Police armed with long guns on the road stopped at least two vehicles driving away from the scene and checked their trunks and vehicles before allowing them to drive away.
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 mobile phone video and circulated widely on the internet.
It was followed a day later by the shooting death of another black man in Minnesota, whose girlfriend live streamed the aftermath of his death on Facebook.
Then, a black gunman in Dallas opened fire on police at a protest about the police shootings, killing five officers and heightening tensions even further.
Over the weekend, thousands of people took to the streets in Baton Rouge to condemn Mr Sterling’s death, including hundreds of demonstrators who congregated outside the police station. Authorities arrested about 200 people over the three-day weekend.
Michelle Rogers, 56, said the pastor at her church had led prayers on Sunday for Mr Sterling’s family and police officers, asking members of the congregation to stand up if they knew an officer. Ms Rogers said an officer in the congregation hastily left the church near the end of the service, and a pastor announced that “something had happened”.
“But he didn’t say what. Then we started getting texts about officers down,” she said.
Ms Rogers and her husband drove near the scene, but were blocked at an intersection closed down by police.
“I can’t explain what brought us here,” she said. “We just said a prayer in the car for the families.”
President Barack Obama said he condemned, in the strongest sense of the word, the attack on police. He said the attacks on officers were “attacks on public servants, on the rule of law, and on civilised society, and they have to stop”.
Mr Obama added that he had offered the full support of the federal government to Louisiana state and local officials.
He said the motives for the attack were unknown, but there was no justification for violence against law enforcement. He said the attacks were the work of cowards who speak for no-one.