Officials said the officers were shot Sunday after responding to a call about a man walking down Airline Highway with an assault rifle at approximately 8:40 a.m. outside a store in Baton Rouge — about a mile from police headquarters.The Louisiana governor called the shooting of Baton Rouge deputies and officers "an absolutely unspeakable heinous attack" Sunday, as the city mourned the deaths of three officers and prayed for the recovery of one "fighting for his life."
Louisiana Gov. John Bel Edwards described Sunday morning's deadly ambush on six Baton Rouge officers as "unjustifiable" and said, "the violence, the hatred just has to stop."
Officials said the officers were shot Sunday after responding to a call about a man walking down Airline Highway with an assault rifle at approximately 8:40 a.m. outside a store in Baton Rouge — about a mile from police headquarters.
Authorities did not name the shooter, but sources identified him to Fox News as Eugene Long of Kansas City, Mo., who they said carried out the attack on his 29th birthday.
Three officers are confirmed dead in the ambush. Three others are injured, including one critically. The gunman was shot and killed at the scene.
Authorities called the investigation as "ongoing," but said there is no active shooter in Baton Rouge. They said the suspect killed was the sole shooter, but they are "not ready to say" he acted alone.
"We believe that the person who shot and killed our officers, that he was the person that was shot and killed at the scene," Col. Mike Edmonson told reporters at an afternoon press conference.
A police spokesman told the Associated Press that two "persons of interest" in the killings have been detained near Baton Rouge.
The names and races of the officers and the shooter have not yet been released. Two of the deceased officers are from the Baton Rouge Police Department and the third is from the East Baton Rouge Parish Sheriff's Office. A fourth officer, a sheriff's deputy, is in critical condition. Two additional officers suffered non-life threatening injuries.
A witness told WBRZ-TV that a man dressed in black with his face covered was shooting indiscriminately when he walked out between a convenience store and car wash across from Hammond Air Plaza, according to Fox radio affiliate WJBO.
A police robot was brought in to ensure there were no explosives on the dead suspect or in the vicinity.
A government official told Fox News that authorities are working to confirm a report that a shooter was seen with an an AR-type weapon and wearing body armor.
Fox8 Live reported that a witness described hearing at least 25 to 30 gunshots in the area of the convenience store.
"I walked out into the street to see what was going on; there was a man lying in the street," the witness told the station. "I assume he was dead because he wasn't moving."
Brady Vancel, who claims he saw the gunman, told the station that he "was in all black." "He had a mask on and a gun in his hand," Vancel said. "The way he was moving you would know that this was just a pedestrian running with a rifle in his hand more than someone with trained skills to move in that way with a rifle."
The FBI and the ATF are on scene, helping state and local police investigate what is being described as a "very large crime scene."
President Obama said in an address Sunday evening that the shooting deaths underscore the danger police face every day.