The gunman who killed three Baton Rouge law enforcement officers last summer searched online for the home addresses of the two white police officers involved in the fatal shooting of Alton Sterling, a black man killed outside a North Foster Drive convenience store almost one year ago.
The Associated Press reports an investigative report released today doesn’t indicate that 29-year-old Gavin Long ever acted on the information he sought online. His research wasn’t the only evidence of his anger over the police treatment of African-Americans.
East Baton Rouge Parish District Attorney Hillar Moore III revealed details about Long’s internet search during the release of an exhaustive report on the 2016 ambush shooting of Baton Rouge law enforcement. The prosecutor showed videos, photos and graphics depicting exactly how Long attacked police on July 17.
On a Sunday morning roughly two weeks after Sterling’s death, Long sought out law enforcement officers in Baton Rouge. He killed Officers Montrell Jackson, 32, and Matthew Gerald, 41, and Sheriff’s Deputy Brad Garafola, 45.
Investigators didn’t find any evidence anyone in Baton Rouge helped Long, Moore said. They also didn’t find evidence that Long attended any of the nightly protests here after Sterling was killed during a struggle with two officers on July 5.
“We believe that he was ready to die this day,” Moore said. “He believes that protests are worthless and that action needs to be taken, not protests.”
After killing the three officers and wounding three others, Long was shot to death by tactical officers who acted appropriately, Moore said.
The 29-year-old from Kansas City, Missouri, had left a suicide note.
Long wrote people who knew him would be surprised he was “suspected of committing such horrendous acts of violence.” But, Long said in his note he believed he had to inflict harm “upon bad cops as well as good cops in hopes that the good cops (which are the majority) will be able to stand together and enact justice and punishment against bad cops.”
