Baton Rouge Police Arrest 3 in Plot to Shoot at Officers

http://www.nytimes.com/2016/07/13/us/baton-rouge-police-arrest-3-in-plot-to-shoot-at-officers.html

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BATON ROUGE, La. — Law enforcement officials said here Tuesday that they were investigating a plot by four people to shoot at police officers, and they cited the threat to explain the heavy police presence at protests within the last week.

The discovery of the plot arose from arrests made in connection with the burglary of a pawnshop early Saturday, federal, state and local officials said.

Eight handguns were taken, six of which have been recovered. Of the four people thought to be involved, three, including a 13-year-old, have been arrested, officials said. Another man who had bought a stolen weapon had also been arrested.

The Baton Rouge police chief, Carl Dabadie Jr., said that one of the suspects, Antonio Thomas, 17, was arrested fleeing the scene, after he and others had allegedly broken into the shop through the roof. The chief said that Mr. Thomas had said during questioning after his arrest “that the reason the burglary was being done was to harm police officers.” On Sunday, another suspect, Malik Bridgewater, 20, was arrested at his home.

Chief Dabadie and other law enforcement officers at the news conference, including an official with the federal Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives, described it as an continuing, credible threat.

Officials said they had been looking into another possible threat — someone who had been following a sheriff’s deputy in the early days of the protests — but said most rumors of threats were unfounded.

The police have been criticized as employing heavy-handed techniques at protests over police shootings of civilians. At an unplanned protest march on Sunday evening, scores of officers, some carrying rifles, showed up in a residential area in riot gear, and were backed by armored trucks.

Acknowledging that their tactics had been questioned, officials said they had not been able to explain the concerns, and were forced to do so Tuesday because some details of the alleged plot had been reported in local news outlets.

“Look what happened in Dallas,” said Sheriff Sid J. Gautreaux III of East Baton Rouge Parish, referring to the fatal shooting of five officers by a sniper during a peaceful protest march in that city. “I think the threat speaks for itself. We can’t take anything for granted anymore.”

Those who had been demonstrating this week in Baton Rouge said they had heard nothing of the threat, but were skeptical about the idea that the police tactics had been in response to such a plot.

“Before they had a threat they were using excessive force,” said Gary Chambers, the publisher of The Rouge Collection, an online news site that serves predominantly black north Baton Rouge. “We’ve had excessive force since Day 1.”