Baton Rouge: A city divided between police and the policed

VIDEO: Philando Castile’s girlfriend speaks outThen, on July 7th, a gunman with ties to black supremacist groups shot and killed five law enforcement officers and injured 9 others during an otherwise peaceful demonstration in downtown Dallas. We don’t know whether the killer set out to target police officers, or whether he gunned them down as they responded to a call.

Sunday’s shootings occurred about a mile from the Baton Rouge Police Department headquarters, where dozens of people were arrested this month while protesting Sterling’s death.

“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”. Two Baton Rouge police officers and one sheriff’s deputy were killed.

USA media identified the suspect as Gavin Long, a 29-year-old African American from Kansas City, Missouri, whose birthday was on Sunday.

The shooting happened along Airline Highway, a major roadway in the city.

Another law enforcement official described Long as a “black separatist”.

A witness told television station WAFB that he saw a masked man in black shorts and shirt running from the scene where the three officers were killed.

It is the fourth high-profile deadly encounter in the United States involving police over the past two weeks.

“We always have stressed officers should be on top of their game, but they now have to up it even further”, Parkansky said. Officials by 4 p.m. Sunday thought the attack on the officers was the work of multiple gunmen, CNN reported. Edwards spoke with President Obama, who offered support and condolences for those affected by the shooting.

Confronting another killing of police officers, 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.

One officer was sent to Baton Rouge General Medical Center and was being treated for non-life-threatening injuries, spokeswoman Meghan Parrish said.

Over the weekend, thousands of people took to the streets in Baton Rouge to condemn Sterling’s death, including hundreds of demonstrators who congregated outside the police station. “Rest assured, every resource available to the State of Louisiana will be used to ensure the perpetrators are swiftly brought to justice”, Edwards said in a statement. “For now, I’m asking all Louisianans to join Donna and me in praying for the officers who were involved and their families as the details continue to unfold”.

“The violence, the hatred, it has to stop”, he said.

“We have to, as a country, sit down and just grind it out, solve these problems”, Obama said after the meeting.