BY MIKE KUNZELMAN
July 17, 2016 about 1:30 p.m.
Airport Highway blocked off after shooting.
BATON ROUGE, La. (AP) — Three officers are confirmed dead and three others wounded after a shooting in Baton Rouge, a sheriff’s office spokeswoman said Sunday. One suspect is dead and law enforcement officials believe two others are still at large, the spokeswoman said.
Casey Rayborn Hicks, a spokeswoman for the East Baton Rouge Sheriff’s Office, said in a statement that the public should call 911 immediately if they see anything suspicious.
The shooting — which happened just before 9 a.m., less than 1 mile from police headquarters — comes amid spiraling 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 officer blocks emergency entrance to Our Lady of the Lake Regional Medical Center
Baton Rouge Police Sgt. Don Coppola told The Associated Press earlier that the officers were rushed to a local hospital. Coppola said authorities are asking people to stay away from the area.
Multiple police units were stationed at Our Lady of the Lake Regional Medical Center, where stricken officers were believed to be undergoing treatment at a trauma center. A police officer with a long gun was blocking the parking lot at the emergency room.
Spokeswoman Ashley Mendoza said the hospital received five patients from the police shooting, all “law enforcement professionals.” Of the two who survived the shooting, one is in critical condition and the other is in fair condition.
Officers and deputies from the Baton Rouge Police Department and East Baton Rouge Sheriff’s Office were involved, according to Hicks.
Louisiana Gov, John Bel Edwards
Gov. John Bel Edwards asked the public to pray for the officers involved and their families.
“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.’
An Associated Press reporter on the scene 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 cellphone 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 livestreamed the aftermath of his death on Facebook. Then on Thursday, a black gunman in Dallas opened fire on police at a protest about the police shootings, killing five officers and heightening tensions even further.
Alton Sterling, Philando Castile shot to death by Baton Rouge, Minneapolis police.
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. Authorities arrested about 200 people over the three-day weekend.
Michelle Rogers, 56, said the pastor at her church had led prayers Sunday for Sterling’s family and police officers, asking members of the congregation to stand up if they knew an officer.
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.
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.”
Three officers dead; 1 suspect dead and 2 others at large in Baton Rouge shooting, Sheriff’s Office says
The Advocate
By Kyle Whitfield
July 17, 2017
Baton Rouge highway blocked off/Photo Mark Wallheiser/Getty Images
What we know:
–Three law enforcement officers confirmed dead
–1 suspect dead; law enforcement believes 2 others at large
–Shooting happened near Airline and Old Hammond highways around 8:30 a.m.
BATON ROUGE
July 17, 2016 Update, 11:21 a.m.
Baton Rouge police Public Information Director Casey Rayborn Hicks
At least three law enforcement officers were killed Sunday morning in a shooting on Airline Highway near Old Hammond Highway, and others were wounded, authorities confirmed.
One shooter is dead in the Sunday morning attack on police, said Casey Rayborn Hicks, a spokeswoman for the East Baton Rouge Parish Sheriff’s Office. She said law enforcement believes there are at least two other shooters who may be at large.
Hicks asked the public to call 911 immediately if they see anything suspicious.
Two of the dead are Baton Rouge police officers, and one is an East Baton Rouge Parish sheriff’s deputy, Baton Rouge Chief Administrative Officer William Daniel confirmed.
A call came in to police dispatch before 9 a.m. of a man walking near Airline Highway with an assault weapon.
About 11 a.m., Rayborn Hicks said that the area is still an active scene but is contained.
Both lanes of Airline Highway are shut down from Goodwood Boulevard to Old Hammond Highway and from Old Hammond to Drusilla Drive, Hicks said.
Police officers wearing bulletproof vests were near the scene and helicopters were flying overhead.
Armed police officers were stationed at Our Lady of the Lake Regional Medical Center, where a coroner’s vehicle had pulled up.
Hundreds rally in support of Lovelle Mixon, who killed 4 police officers in Oakland in 2009 before being shot to death himself, in wake of police killing of Oscar Grant.
Related to photo above: http://sfbayview.com/2016/02/remembering-oakland-rebel-lovelle-mixon/
