Obama condemns attack on Baton Rouge officers

The reports come a week after a wave of protests against police violence in Baton Rouge and other cities after a 37-year-old father of five was shot and killed at close quarters by law enforcement officers.

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. Police said one suspect is dead, and they believe he was the only shooter.

The Black Lives Matter civil rights movement has called for police to end racial profiling, bringing the issue to national attention ahead of the November 8 USA presidential election.

The suspect was killed at the scene, and police have not formally announced a name of the deceased suspect – but a law enforcement official told NPR’s Carrie Johnson that the suspect is named Gavin Eugene Long. According to eyewitness accounts, Castile declared to officers that he was carrying a licensed firearm; he was shot as he reached for his driver’s license. They did not discuss the gunman’s motive or any relationship to the wider police conflicts.

Witness Brady Vancel told CBS television affiliate WAFB that he saw what may have been gang members shooting at each other before police arrived.

Three officers are dead and three others wounded after the shooting less than one mile from local police headquarters.

And these incidents follow a December 2014 attack on two New York City police officers who were killed when a gunman walked up to their parked patrol vehicle and fired as the men sat inside. McKeon said that people across the country support police and troopers, but “radicalized criminals and terrorists have declared war on the guardians of democracy”.

The department “is taking all steps necessary to ensure the safety of the public and its Police Officers”, the statement said.

“We’re not sure of anything right now”, Baton Rouge police spokesman L’Jean McNeely told reporters near the scene, urging local residents to be on the alert for the suspects.

Donald Trump, the presumptive Republican presidential nominee, took to Twitter to say: “We are TRYING to fight ISIS, and now our own people are killing our police”. “An attack on one of us is an attack on all of us, and the people who carried out this act, the individuals, they do not represent the people of Baton Rouge or the estate of Louisiana or what’s best about our country they don’t represent the values we stand for”. “I would ask all Mississippians to rally around our law enforcement and join Deborah and me in praying for the families of the fallen”. 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.

According to radio traffic, Baton Rouge police answered a report of a man with an assault rifle and were met by gunfire. The killing was captured on cellphone video and circulated widely on the internet. “None”, Mr. Obama said in a statement.

Three other suspects were already arrested in the case, after eight handguns were stolen in a pawn shop robbery on July 9.