BATON ROUGE, La. (AP) – The Latest on the shooting of law enforcement officers in Baton Rouge (all times local):
7:55 p.m.
A spokeswoman for the East Baton Rouge Parish Sheriff’s Office has identified the third officer killed during a shooting in Baton Rouge as sheriff’s deputy Brad Garafola.
Casey Rayborn Hicks told The Associated Press Sunday that the slain deputy was 45-years-old and had been with the sheriff’s office for 24 years.
Garafola was one of three law enforcement officers shot and killed Sunday. The other two were Baton Rouge police department officers Montrell Jackson and Matthew Gerald.
Hicks also identified the injured sheriff’s deputies as 41-year-old Nicholas Tullier an 18-year veteran, and 51-year-old Bruce Simmons, a 23-year veteran.
Hicks says that Tullier is in critical condition while Simmons has non-life threatening injuries.
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7:30 p.m.
The father-in-law of a Baton Rouge police officer who was shot and killed describes him as a “gentle giant.”
Lonnie Jordan spoke to reporters on the front lawn of Montrell Jackson’s house in the rural Livingston Parish.
He said he heard about Jackson’s death while at church Sunday morning when he received a text message.
Jordan described his son-in-law as a “gentle giant” — tall and stout and formidable looking, but with a peaceful disposition.
Jordan said Jackson was “always about peace.”
Jordan said his son-in-law had been working long hours since the death of Alton Sterling and the resulting protests. But Jordan said if the work was a strain, Jackson didn’t let it show.
Montrell Jackson was one of three law enforcement officials shot and killed Sunday morning in Baton Rouge.
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The family of a 32-year-old Baton Rouge police officer killed Sunday is mourning his death and called him a man of “God, family and the police force.”
Kedrick Pitts, a 24-year-old truck driver and the younger half-brother of Montrell Jackson, said he was very close to his older brother.
He described his brother as someone dedicated to “God, family and the police force.”
Pitts and other family members were gathered outside Jackson’s mother’s house in Baton Rouge to mourn the loss of Jackson.
Pitts said his brother “went above and beyond” and that he was “a protector.”
He said his brother had been on the force for 10 years, having joined in 2006. He said he had risen to the rank of corporal.
He said Jackson has a wife and a 4-month-old son, Mason. He called Jackson a hard-working police officer who often worked seven days a week.
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7:10 p.m.
A person familiar with the investigation has identified the second slain Baton Rouge police officer as Matthew Gerald, 41.
The person spoke on condition of anonymity because he was not authorized to speak to the media.
Gerald was one of three law enforcement officers killed by a gunman Sunday in Baton Rouge.
By Mike Kunzelman reporting from Baton Rouge.
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6:45 p.m.
A friend of the family of a Baton Rouge police officer shot and killed Sunday confirms he posted an emotional Facebook message just days ago about the challenges of being a police officer.
Erika Green told The Associated Press Sunday that she is friends of the family of Montrell Jackson, the slain officer, and that she saw the message on his Facebook page.
A screenshot of the image has been widely circulating on the internet. The date was July 8, just three days after a black man was shot and killed by police in Baton Rouge, touching off a tense week between police and the city’s African-American population.
It is no longer on his Facebook page.
In the message, Jackson says he is physically and emotionally tired. He says while in uniform he gets nasty looks and out of uniform some consider him a threat.
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6:00 p.m.
The mother of Alton Sterling’s son says she is heartbroken for the Baton Rouge officers who were gunned down and their families and is calling for peace.
In a statement issued Sunday evening Quinyetta McMillon says she is disgusted by the despicable act of violence that resulted in the officers’ deaths and that all she and her son Cameron want is peace.
Thirty-seven-year-old Sterling, a black man, was killed by white officers on July 5 after a scuffle at a convenience store. The killing was captured on widely circulated cellphone video.
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5:47 p.m.
The gunman who fatally shot three officers in Baton Rouge briefly attended the University of Alabama.
University spokesman Chris Bryant said Sunday evening that 29-year-old Gavin Eugene Long, of Kansas City, Missouri, was a student for one semester in the spring of 2012.
Bryant says university police had no interaction with Long during that time.
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5:30 p.m.
A Louisiana state representative has identified one of the three officers killed Sunday and said he had a 4-month-old child.
State Rep. Ted James Sunday gave the name of the dead officer as Montrell Jackson.
James said he knows Jackson and his family personally and spoke to the family earlier Sunday.
Jackson was one of three officers shot and killed in Baton Rouge Sunday morning. Three others were also wounded.
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5:15 p.m.
Law enforcement officers have converged on a house in Kansas City, Missouri, that is listed for a man named Gavin Long. An Associated Press reporter said some officers had weapons drawn from behind trees and others were behind police cars and unmarked cars in the residential neighborhood.
An officer who did not identify himself and asked reporters to move away, saying that authorities were trying to ensure that there was no one in the house.
The small turquoise frame house with a front porch is in a lower income neighborhood in the southern part of the city.
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4:27 p.m.
According to radio traffic, Baton Rouge police answered a report of a man with an assault rifle and were met by gunfire – and for several long minutes, didn’t know where it was coming from.
The radio exchanges were made public Sunday by the website Broadcastify.
Nearly 2 minutes after the first “Officer down!” report, an officer on the scene is heard saying they don’t know the shooter’s location.
A statement that the location is known comes nearly six minutes after the first shots are reported.
About 30 seconds later, someone says shots are still being fired.
The recording lasts about 17 minutes and includes urgent calls for an armored personnel carrier called a BearCat.
It does not include word that the gunman is dead.
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Online: http://www.broadcastify.com/news/20
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4:22 p.m.
A law enforcement official familiar with the investigation into the shooting deaths of three Baton Rouge police officers says the shooter has been identified as Gavin Long.
The official spoke on condition of anonymity because the official was not authorized to discuss an ongoing investigation.
The official did not have any other details on Long.
-By Eric Tucker reporting from Washington
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4:20 p.m.
President Barack Obama is calling on Americans to lower avoid “overheated” rhetoric and focus on unifying words following the fatal shooting of three police officers in Baton Rouge, Louisiana.
Obama is delivering a statement about the shooting from the Brady Press Briefing Room of the White House. He says as of now, the killer’s motive is unclear. He says officials don’t know whether the killer was targeting police or killed them down as they responded to a call.
Obama is noting that the shooting and other recent incidents in Texas and elsewhere come just before the Republican and Democratic conventions are set to begin. He says that’s a time when rhetoric tends to get hotter than usual. Obama says the U.S. doesn’t need “careless accusations” intended to score points but should instead try to “temper our words.”
He says attacks like the one in Baton Rouge are happening far too often and constitute an attack on the rule of law.
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4:15 p.m.
According to radio traffic, Baton Rouge police answered a report of a man with an assault rifle and were met by gunfire – and for several long minutes, didn’t know where it was coming from.
Three law enforcement officers were killed and three wounded, one critically. Police say the suspect was shot and killed at the scene.
The radio exchanges were made public Sunday by the website Broadcastify.
Nearly 2 minutes after the first “Officer down!” report, an officer on the scene is heard saying they don’t know the shooter’s location.
A statement that the location is known comes nearly six minutes after the first shots are reported.
About 30 seconds later, someone says shots are still being fired.
The recording lasts about 17 minutes and includes urgent calls for an armored personnel carrier called a BearCat.
It does not include word that the gunman is dead.