Sources say Baton Rogue shooter Gavin Long suffered from PTSD

Prior to the shooting, Long posted a video to YouTube describing the Fourth of July as a day to celebrate uprisings against oppressors as he speculated on why some acts of violence were celebrated while others were considered to be criminal.

Tensions heightened in Baton Rouge following the death of Alton Sterling, a 37-year-old black man who was fatally shot by white police officers during a scuffle.

In Sunday’s Baton Rouge shooting, Gavin Long, 29, a former Marine from Missouri dressed in black and carrying extra ammunition, opened fire on officers about 8:45 a.m., police said.

Long died in the ensuing gunfight with police. The list was provided Wednesday by Baton Rouge Mayor-President Kip Holden. Tuesday, July 19, 2016. The letter was shown to an Associated Press reporter but could not be independently verified.

During his five years in the Marine Corps, Long served in Iraq from June 2008 to January 2009, and also spent some time in California and Japan. His occupational expertise was listed as a “data network specialist”. The statement said the Health Insurance Portability and Accountability Act prohibits the VA from disclosing any additional information.

Garafola was a 24-year veteran of the sheriff’s office.

Law enforcement officials have said Long killed two Baton Rouge Police officers – Montrell Jackson and Matthew Gerald – and East Baton Rouge Parish Sheriff’s Office Deputy Brad Garafola. “I know Gavin; I know he did it”.

Hundreds attended a rally Tuesday night supporting law-enforcement officers at police headquarters, about a mile from where the officers were shot to death Sunday morning. “He actually felt that was the only thing he could do to help the situation”.

The impromptu shrines in Louisiana’s state capital illustrate the heartache on both sides of a confrontation over police use of lethal force against mostly black men and targeted killings in Dallas and Baton Rouge by black gunmen bearing racial grievances against white officers.

He then goes on to list organizations he may be affiliated with – including the Nation of Islam (which he says he was a member of), Floyd Mayweather’s The Money Team (he’s wearing their hat) and terror groups like ISIS.

The diaries are in addition to a self-described, handwritten manifesto that an OH man says was emailed to him by Long less than an hour before the shootings.

Long refers in the message to an “unseen & concealed war within America’s police force between Good cops & Bad cops”. He left a digital trail of his thoughts under the name “Cosmo”.

The AP was not able to conclusively verify Long sent the photos himself from his Google account.

For now, the healthy national debate over the factors that have created those realities – and what can be done about them – is being drowned out by the sound of gunshots and the tears of peace-loving, law-abiding Americans who simply want the shooting to stop.

Karama said that representatives from the U.S. Department of Justice were on the way to his home to interview him about the letter. Doug Cain said authorities were trying to verify that Long wrote the letter.

He did not specifically mention Baton Rouge or detail his plans for an attack in the letter.