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Police officers shot dead in Baton Rouge

July 17, 2016

Three US police officers have been killed and another three injured in a shooting in Baton Rouge, Louisiana. US President Obama has pledged justice.

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A police officer armed with a rifle guards the entrance to a local hospital.
Image: Reuters/J.Dubinsky

Baton Rouge, Louisiana is on high alert after a gunman shot and killed three law enforcement officers and injured three more on Sunday morning.

Police said the suspect was shot and killed at the scene. They originally believed that two other assailants might be at large but later said the dead gunman was the only person who fired at the officers. Various US media have identified the gunman as Gavin Long, a 29-year-old African American from Kansas City, Missouri.

Police vehicles block access to part of Airline Highway in Baton Rouge, Louisiana
Police vehicles block access to part of Airline Highway in Baton Rouge, LouisianaImage: Reuters/J.Dubinsky

The incident began when both local police and the sheriff's department responded to the shooting less than a mile (1.6 kilometers) from the police headquarters, at a convenience store.

Among the injured, one officer was in critical condition and another in fair condition at a local hospital. Authorities are calling the shootings an ambush, although one witness rejected that assertion saying the gunman were initially shooting at each other.

In a televised address, President Barack Obama voiced his sorrow at the shooting. He vowed that "justice would be done," saying the incident underscored the dangers police officers face in the line of duty.

Obama said the attack was "an assault on all of us."

US presidential hopeful Hillary Clinton said the shooting was unjustifiable and called it "an assault on all of us." Her Republican Party rival Donald Trump meanwhile tweeted that the US was divided and "out of control."

A string of shooting

The southern city of Baton Rouge was the scene of a deadly police shooting earlier this month of a black man, Alton Sterling, a father of five, who had appeared to be restrained by police during the incident. That shooting, and another in Minnesota, sparked national outrage.

During a peaceful rally in Dallas, Texas, following the two shootings, a black gunman opened fire, killing five police officers there.

bik/jlw (Reuters, AP, AFP, dpa)