Area of Baton Rouge shooting opened

BATON ROUGE, La. — Authorities have opened up the area in Baton Rouge where three law enforcement officers were shot and killed.

The ground behind the convenience store and a nearby beauty supply store was still wet Sunday, apparently from being washed down by authorities following the investigation.

An Associated Press photographer on the scene could see what appeared to be two large blood stains on the concrete pavement on either end of the wall of the beauty supply store.

What appeared to be three bullet holes pierced the back of the corrugated aluminum wall of the beauty supply store on one end while two bullet holes could be seen entering the wall at the other end of the building.

Three officers were killed in the Sunday morning shooting.

THE SHOOTER

The man who killed two police officers and a sheriff’s deputy in Baton Rouge Sunday was a former Marine sergeant who served in Iraq and had no known ties to any extremist groups.

Gavin Eugene Long, 29, whose last known address was in Kansas City, Missouri, carried out the attack on his 29th birthday. Police say he also wounded three officers before police killed him in the latest in a string of violent incidents involving police and the black community.

According to military records, Long was a Marine from 2005 to 2010 and rose to the rank of sergeant. He served in Iraq from June 2008 to January 2009, and records show he received several medals, including one for good conduct. Long, who received an honorable discharge, was listed as a “data network specialist” in the Marines.

After the Marines, he attended the University of Alabama for one semester, in the spring of 2012, according to university spokesman Chris Bryant. University police had no interaction with Long during that time, Bryant said.

Oren Segal, director of the Center on Extremism for the Anti-Defamation League, said there was no information linking Long, who was black, to any known extremist group or movement, but the ADL and others were investigating Long’s possible use of aliases.

Sunday’s incident was the latest in a series of deadly encounters in the United States involving police and black men that have sparked a national debate over race and policing. It also came less than two weeks after 37-year-old Alton Sterling, a black man, was fatally shot by police in Baton Rouge in a confrontation that sparked nightly protests and has reverberated nationwide. Police-community relations in Baton Rouge have been especially tense since Sterling’s death.

In Kansas City, police converged on a small turquoise frame house listed under Long’s name. 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 in the southern part of the city.

Missouri court records show that a Gavin Eugene Long filed a petition for divorce from his wife in February 2011. The online court records don’t say why the couple divorced, but the petition indicates they had no children and that Long had represented himself. Three months after the divorce petition was filed, his ex-wife was granted restoration of her maiden name. Last month, on June 7, a case against Long by the city of Kansas City over unpaid city earnings taxes was dismissed.

TWO RELEASED

A state police spokesman says two “persons of interests” who were detained earlier Sunday have been released.

Major Doug Cain said late Sunday that the individuals from Addis were questioned and released but that the investigation was still ongoing. He said no charges were filed against them.

Cain said authorities are still looking to see if the man who opened fire on police in Baton Rouge had any help — “indirectly, directly here or at home.”

THE SLAIN OFFICERS

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.

MONTRELL JACKSON: DOES THIS CITY LOVE ME?

Just days before he was shot and killed Sunday morning, Jackson posted an emotional Facebook message saying he was “physically and emotionally” tired and expressing how difficult it was to be both a police officer and a black man, a friend said Sunday.

“I swear to God I love this city but I wonder if this city loves me,” he wrote.

Friends and family of Jackson were mourning the 10-year-veteran of the police force that relatives described as a “gentle giant” and a “protector” after he and another two law enforcement officers were shot and killed Sunday morning by a gunman.

In the Facebook posting Jackson said while in uniform he gets nasty looks and out of uniform some consider him a threat.

“I’ve experienced so much in my short life and these last 3 days have tested me to the core,” the posting read.

The message was posted July 8, just three days after a black man was shot and killed by police in Baton Rouge. That shooting was the beginning of an extremely tense week in the country’s fraught history of race relations. Another black man was shot and killed by police the next day in Minnesota, with his girlfriend livestreaming the aftermath on Facebook. Then a black gunman opened fire during a protest against the police shootings in Dallas, killing five police officers.

Jackson does not specifically refer to those events but the posting appears to be a reaction to them.

Erika Green told The Associated Press Sunday that she is friends with the family of Jackson, one of three Baton Rouge law enforcement officers who were killed Sunday morning. She said she saw the message on his Facebook page.

In the message, Jackson says he is physically and emotionally tired.

“These are trying times. Please don’t let hate infect your heart,” Jackson wrote.

A screenshot of the image has been widely circulating on the internet but is no longer on Jackson’s Facebook page.

Jackson’s family was mourning the officer Sunday afternoon.

Kedrick Pitts, the 24-year-old younger half brother of Montrell Jackson, said he was very close to his older brother.

“With him it was God, family and the police force,” Pitts said outside his mother’s house in Baton Rouge, where family was gathered Sunday. “He went above and beyond … He was a protector.”

He said his brother had been on the force for 10 years, having joined in 2006 and had risen to the rank of corporal.

Pitts said he woke up Sunday to find his mother crying as news broke about the shooting involving police. He drove his mother to the hospital and it was there that they discovered that Jackson had been shot. He said Jackson leaves behind a wife and a 4-month-old son named Mason.

Jackson and his family were planning to go to Houston soon for a vacation, Pitts said.

Pitts, stunned by his brother’s death, put on a brave face and did not shed any tears. “I did all the crying I can do. It’s not going to bring him back,” he said.

Pitts described Jackson as a person with a humorous streak but a serious side. He said he was fond of shoes and had a collection of more than 500 pairs — such as special Kobe Bryant and Michael Jordan shoes. He said his brother was a big fan of the Pelicans and the Dallas Cowboys.

He called Jackson a hard-working police officer who often worked seven days a week.

His aunt, Octavia Lacey, a 55-year-old disabled woman in Baton Rouge, called Jackson an exceptional person.

“Never a problem (as a child,)” she recalled. “Good spirited child.”

She expressed disbelief that her nephew was shot by someone who allegedly came from out of state. “I don’t get it,” she said.

In the rural Livingston Parish, family of Jackson’s wife was also mourning their loss.

Lonnie Jordan, Jackson’s father-in-law, spoke to reporters on the front lawn of Jackson’s house. Jordan 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, saying he 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.

MATTHEW GERALD: DEPLOYED TO IRAQ THREE TIMES

Gerald, a father of two, had served in both the Marines and the Army. He deployed to Iraq three times, his friends said.

“Matt was the kind of guy that you knew immediately when he entered the room,” said Ryan Cabral, who served with Gerald in Iraq. “Whether it was the energy he carried with him or that Cajun accent he had … maybe it was the Marine in him.”

When Gerald was excited about something, you would be, too, Cabral said. When he called after Louisiana State University football games, Cabral could tell by the sound of his voice whether the Tigers had been victorious. He filled his Facebook page with testaments to American patriotism: American flags, police badges and photos from his service. He loved to spend his free time with his wife and two daughters, or fishing on his bass boat. He once took apart and rebuilt the engine just to make it louder.

Cabral, who is now a police officer in Texas, described Gerald and his fellow officers as “made to serve the people.”

“We did our time in the military and when that time was up, you just can’t turn off that want to serve the people,” he said. “Today, he did his final service by giving his life to protect the citizens of Baton Rouge and his fellow brothers and sisters in uniform.”

Nick Lambert, who also served with Gerald in the Army, said it is heartbreaking that this is the way his friend died.

“After three tours, not a scratch on him. Comes back home, chooses a job to serve others and this is what our society does?” Lambert said. “It’s a coward’s way to make a statement.”

BRAD GARAFOLA: TWO SONS, TWO DAUGHTERS

Garafola leaves behind four children: two sons, ages 21 and 12, and two daughters, 15 and 12, according to the Advocate. “He was a great guy. Not just a great law enforcement [officer], he was a great husband and a great father,” his wife, Tonja Garafola, told the newspaper.