Three officers, 1 suspected shooter dead in Baton Rouge shooting
Editor’s note: This is an updating story from The Advocate. For the full report, click here.
Update, 3:02 p.m.
Governor John Bel Edwards, Louisiana State Police Superintendent Michael Edmondson, East Baton Rouge Sheriff Sid Gautreaux and Baton Rouge Police Chief Carl Dabadie all came to Our Lady of the Lake Regional Medical Center on Sunday to gather with family members of the killed and wounded law enforcement officers, according to a State Police spokesman.
Although the hospital’s emergency room remained open to the public, security outside was tight, as heavily armed officers checked cars entering the grounds.
A flurry of activity followed when one man, who according to his mother was seeking treatment for a fever and a sore throat, arrived at the emergency room with a gun in his car. Police briefly detained him before allowing him to leave.
Several men and women stopped by to officer the lawmen guarding the hospital tents, bottles of water, food or words of encouragement.
Chris Ambrogio, 24, left a bouquet of flowers. Ambrogio said he was a Slidell native but has lived in Baton Rouge for some time. He called the events of the past several weeks “crazy.”
“I’m just upset with the things that are going on,” Ambrogio said. “Everybody feels for this community, and we wanted to come together and show our respect and support.”
The hospital’s blood supply remained stable, according to its official Twitter account, and those seeking to donate blood were encouraged to do so elsewhere.
Three Baton Rouge law enforcement officers were killed on Sunday morning and three others wounded as they responded to a report of a man armed with an assault rifle on Airline Highway near the Hammond Aire Plaza.
A Missouri man suspected in the shootings was killed, according to two sources familiar with the investigation. Two other men were picked up across the Mississippi River in Addis and were being questioned by police as “persons of interest,” according to another source.
The shootings around 9 a.m. Sunday came more than a week of wrenching but mostly peaceful protests over a July 5 fatal police shooting in Baton Rouge -- as well as another police shooting the next day in Minnesota -- that sparked national protests. At one of the protests, in Dallas, a sniper targeting white police officers killed five officers.
Dispatch reports on police scanners show police on Sunday morning were responding to a report of a man armed with an assault rifle near the B-Quik store on Airline Highway across the street from Hammond Aire Plaza.
About 8:45 a.m., an officer makes a report about a “lady who came up and said there was a suspect walking with a (unintelligible) and an assault rifle out here behind the store."
Two minutes later, there were frantic calls for help.
"Shots fired, officer down, shots fired, officer down!” an officer could be heard yelling. “Got a city officer down, shots fired! Shots fired on Airline!”
Officers initially could not determine where the shots were coming from.
“I don’t know where he’s f*** shooting from,” one yelled.
“We do not have a 40 on the shooter, he is not in sight, possibly a sniper,” an officer said. “We need the Bear Cat!”
The armored vehicles were apparently used to collect and transport officers who had been shot.
Then an injured officer can be heard: “I’m hit, left arm.”
Within 10 minutes, an officer was on his way to the hospital.
A few seconds after that, officers spotted what they described as a "second" shooter.
“We have eyes on a subject,” he said.
At that point there was another frantic call of an “officer down.”
A call went out for the Bear Cat to collect the officer who had been shot.
They described a suspect wearing a mask: “One subject, all black carrying an A-R.”
The encounter with the gunman played out over the course of about 30 minutes, according to a review of police dispatch reports. Officers who responded were fired upon within minutes of arriving and the scene on Airline was basically secured after the first suspect was pinned down and killed, although two others were being sought.
Around noon, L’Jean McKneely, a Baton Rouge police spokesman, said the shooting scene was near the B-Quick Convenience Store on Airline Highway.
He said one shooter was dead somewhere near the store, and police sent a robot inside to determine whether there were any explosives in the store.
He said that there appeared to be a running gun fight in the area of the shopping center and convenience store.
Police had no details available at that time about what started the shooting, he said.
During the morning news conference, McKneely asked the public to notify law enforcement if they spotted someone wearing all black or all camouflage. The two men stopped in West Baton Rouge Parish and taken into custody were initially spotted at the Wal-Mart in Port Allen wearing black t-shirts and camouflage pants, a source said. They were stopped after traveling down LA-1 South and had stopped at a gas station in Addis by police officers, according to the source, which also noted their vehicle had Texas license plates.
Police are notifying the families of the three officers killed and are withholding some specifics about the shooting until that is complete.
“We’re not sure of anything right now,” McKneely said.
The shootings of the law enforcement officers Sunday came after a night in which there were no large protest gatherings in Baton Rouge of the type that had been mounted in the days after Alton Sterling was shot by a Baton Rouge police officer outside a North Foster Drive convenience store on July 5.
Thousands of people turned out on Friday for an emotional funeral of Sterling, 37, who was shot after a brief confrontation with two police officers on July 5. There were no large protests on Friday. And Saturday, when some feared the possibility of more protests, was a quiet day in Baton Rouge.
Sterling’s shooting, which was captured on video and went viral on social media, occurred around 12:35 a.m. after two officers responded to a call about a man who was threatening someone outside the store with a gun. Police have claimed Sterling was reaching for a gun in his pocket as they struggled to get him in handcuffs during a struggle. Two cellphone videos show that the officers had Sterling pinned to the ground when shots were fired. Police have said he was armed.
Governor John Bel Edwards, Louisiana State Police Superintendent Michael Edmondson, East Baton Rouge Sheriff Sid Gautreaux and Baton Rouge Police Chief Carl Dabadie all came to Our Lady of the Lake Regional Medical Center on Sunday to gather with family members of the killed and wounded law enforcement officers, according to a State Police spokesman.
Although the hospital’s emergency room remained open to the public, security outside was tight, as heavily armed officers checked cars entering the grounds.
A flurry of activity followed when one man, who according to his mother was seeking treatment for a fever and a sore throat, arrived at the emergency room with a gun in his car. Police briefly detained him before allowing him to leave.
Several men and women stopped by to officer the lawmen guarding the hospital tents, bottles of water, food or words of encouragement.
Chris Ambrogio, 24, left a bouquet of flowers. Ambrogio said he was a Slidell native but has lived in Baton Rouge for some time. He called the events of the past several weeks “crazy.”
“I’m just upset with the things that are going on,” Ambrogio said. “Everybody feels for this community, and we wanted to come together and show our respect and support.”
The hospital’s blood supply remained stable, according to its official Twitter account, and those seeking to donate blood were encouraged to do so elsewhere.
12:00 p.m. update
L’Jean McKneely, a Baton Rouge police spokesman, said law enforcement are still working an active shooting scene near the B-Quick Convenience Store on Airline Highway.
He said one shooter is dead somewhere near the store, and police have sent a robot inside to determine whether there are any explosives in the store.
He said that there appeared to be a running gun fight in the area of the shopping center and convenience store.
He said there are still no details available on what started the shooting. He said he was first notified of it at about 8:45 a.m. Sunday.
Police are asking the public to look for anyone suspicious, McKneely said. If someone is wearing all black or all camouflage, to call law enforcement.
Police are notifying the families of the three officers killed and are withholding some specifics about the shooting until that is complete.
“We’re not sure of anything right now,” McKneely said.
At least one police officer has been shot in Baton Rouge on Sunday morning, and there's an active shooter situation in the area of Airline and Old Hammond highways, Baton Rouge police confirm.
As of 9:30 a.m., Airline Highway was closed in both directions between Goodwood Boulevard and Interstate 12.
This story was originally published July 17, 2016 at 9:59 AM with the headline "Three officers, 1 suspected shooter dead in Baton Rouge shooting."