BATON ROUGE — Witnesses to the shooting in Baton Rouge that left three police officers dead and three wounded recall an ordinary Sunday morning calm shattered by the sound of gunfire, helicopters and police cars in a busy corridor surrounded by residential neighborhoods.
A gun battle outside a convenience store ended with the death of the suspect, identified by a federal law enforcement official as Gavin E. Long, 29, from the Kansas City, Mo., area.
The slain Baton Rouge Police Department officers were identified as Montrell Jackson, 32, and Matthew Gerald, 41.
Also killed was East Baton Rouge sheriff's deputy Brad Garafola, 45. He was a 24-year veteran of the sheriff's department, said Sheriff Sid Gautreaux III.
Avery Hall, a 17-year-old worker at Benny’s Carwash directly behind the B-Quik convenience store on Airline Highway, where the shooting began, said he was about to pull into work at about 8:45 a.m. Sunday when he was “caught in the crossfire.”
Hall, a recent Baton Rouge high school graduate, said there were gunshots and police officers were ducking and aiming toward the shots. Hall said he made his way to a nearby car dealership, Salsbury’s Chrysler Dodge, took cover behind his car.
“I thought it was a protest, that’s why I thought we could go around,” he said.
Hall said police told him and a co-worker to take cover in the dealership, but the doors were locked. So they went across the highway to the Hammond Aire Auto Spa for shelter, joining about 20 other people who stayed for hours Sunday until police allowed them to leave.
Hall said the experience was “miserable,” but “I wasn’t really scared.”
Nearby resident Ira Thibbodeaux, who lives nearby, said the neighborhood is normally safe. The last crime he could remember was a carjacking.
Thibbodeaux said he heard helicopters and police sirens around his neighborhood starting about 9 a.m. Sunday.
“They were swarming around here like bees,” he said. “I went around telling everyone to close and lock their doors and garages.”
Tracie Rich, who lives on a street near the shooting site, said the Sunday morning violence was shocking. The shooting scene is not far from Tara High School and an older Baton Rouge neighborhood.
“You’re in the heart of the city,” Rich said. “It’s very unsettling.”
She said she heard the shots while having her morning coffee and initially thought it was somebody hammering.
The convenience store and car wash where the shooting occurred is known for its policy of giving police officers free soft drinks, said Chad Keith, who lives in the neighborhood near the scene.
Keith said he heard gunshots from his home nearby and almost immediately heard sirens and helicopters overhead. The police response was quick, he said.
The shooting of the officers came in the wake of the killing of Alton Sterling by Baton Rouge police nearly two weeks ago. Sterling’s funeral was held Friday and protests over his killing continue. Despite the shooting Sunday, protesters arrived not far from the scene, parking in a Circle K convenience store lot about a half mile from the Baton Rouge Police Department headquarters.
Redell Norman, 30, of Baton Rouge, said his group is peaceful and registering voters.
“If you have a problem with voter registration, you don’t love America” Norman said. “I have the strongest condolences for those (deceased) officers.”
Norman and other local protesters have been there every day since the July 5 shooting of Sterling, which also drew many demonstrators from around the country.
“Protesting in our neighborhood won’t do anything” said Norman, who lives in a predominantly black area of north Baton Rouge. “You’re going to see me and hear me.”
