UPDATE 3 – 3 US police officers dead in shooting in Louisiana

UPDATES THROUGHOUT

NEW YORK (AA) – Three law enforcement officers on Sunday were shot dead in Baton Rouge, Louisiana, according to officials.

Mayor Kip Holden and the Sheriff’s Office said three other officers were injured and one suspect was dead, with two others believed to be at large.

The suspect who was killed by officers was described as masked, wearing all black and carrying an assault rifle, local media reported.

The FBI is at the scene and assisting local police.

Briefed on the attack, President Barack Obama condemned “in the strongest sense of the word, the attack on law enforcement in Baton Rouge,” in a statement.

“For the second time in two weeks, police officers who put their lives on the line for ours every day were doing their job when they were killed in a cowardly and reprehensible assault,” he said.

The shooting took place at approximately 9 a.m. just as many residents were headed to church for Sunday service. “I was praying a prayer of peace this morning when this happened,” Denise Marcelle, congresswoman responsible for the city, told the local WAFB television station, adding that it was the “absolutely the worst case scenario.”

Two of the injured officers, one reported to be in critical condition, are being treated at a local hospital whose vicinity is blocked, according to reports.

Another officer is being treated for non-life threatening injuries at a separate hospital.

The crime scene on Airline Highway, about 3 miles from the Baton Rouge Police Department, is on lockdown, with road closures in place.

Two people were detained in the nearby town of Addis after they changed clothes at a Wal-Mart department store and attempted to drive away, local media reported. It is unclear if they are suspects sought by law enforcement in connection to the shooting.

“This is an unspeakable and unjustified attack on all of us at a time when we need unity and healing,” Louisiana Gov. Bel Edwards said in a statement.

One local television station broadcast a police dispatch recording in which an officer is heard shouting, “Shots fired, officer down, shots fired, officer down … we don’t know where they are shooting from.”

The shootings come less than two weeks after the controversial shooting on July 5 of Alton Sterling, a 37-year-old black man, by two white police officers in Baton Rouge that helped spark nationwide protests.

Marcelle urged residents to suspend daily protest Sunday that followed Sterling’s killing.

Five police officers in Dallas, Texas, were shot dead July 7, following a peaceful Black Lives Matter demonstration.

Dallas Police Chief David Brown tweeted: “Our thoughts and prayers are with Baton Rouge Police.”

Last Tuesday, Baton Rouge police arrested three people on charges of stealing handguns with the aim of attacking police officers. Authorities at the time described the incident as a “substantial, credible threat” against law enforcement officials.

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