This article is from the source 'nytimes' and was first published or seen on . It last changed over 40 days ago and won't be checked again for changes.

You can find the current article at its original source at http://www.nytimes.com/2016/07/19/us/baton-rouge-shooting.html

The article has changed 10 times. There is an RSS feed of changes available.

Version 4 Version 5
Baton Rouge Gunman ‘Was Targeting Officers,’ Police Say Online Trail Illuminates Baton Rouge Gunman‘s Path to Violence
(about 1 hour later)
BATON ROUGE, La. — The man who fatally shot three law enforcement officers here and wounded three others before being killed by the police on Sunday morning “was targeting officers,” state police officials said Monday. BATON ROUGE, La. — He joined the Marines, served in Iraq and earned a Good Conduct Medal. He was an entrepreneur, a self-published author, a nutrition and fitness counselor, a proponent of the American gospel of self improvement. He considered himself a lifestyle coach, even though he had failed in marriage, neglected to pay his taxes and was, at one point, living on $500 per month. He had also embarked on a spiritual quest to find his roots as a person of color, traveling around Africa for two years.
“Our preliminary investigation shows that he definitely ambushed those officers,” Lt. J.B. Slaton, a public affairs commander for the Louisiana State Police, said Monday. “We are still trying to find out what his motive was, and that’s going to be part of our investigation. But we believe he was targeting those officers.” But Gavin Long’s life — a life that had seemed, in many ways, deeply, and even typically, American — also became a web of paranoid ideas, a professed allegiance to an antigovernment “sovereign citizen group” and a belief that “bloodshed” was a better tool than peaceful protest in the fight against oppression.
The superintendent of the Louisiana State Police, Col. Michael D. Edmonson, said that investigators were interviewing people and sifting through visual evidence to track the activities of the gunman, Gavin Long, before he shot the officers, and to find out what brought Mr. Long to the city and why he stayed, adding that it was “critical and important” to get it right. On Sunday, Mr. Long died on a commercial street here in a shootout with the police. It was his 29th birthday. He killed three law enforcement officers and wounded three others. On Monday, a State Police spokesman said Mr. Long had been “targeting” officers, though his motives otherwise remain murky.
“There was no doubt in my mind” that Mr. Long had intended to kill the officers, Colonel Edmonson said on CNN. Mr. Long had been positively identified with the use of fingerprint records, Lieutenant Slaton said. Mr. Long had been a resident of Kansas City, Mo., and it is also unclear what he was doing in Baton Rouge, though a video that appears to have been posted by him shows him in the Louisiana capital discussing the July 5 fatal police shooting of a fellow African-American man, Alton B. Sterling. In the video, Mr. Long also hawks one of his books and expounds on his theories of life, success strategies and Afrocentric business practices.
As investigators worked, details about Mr. Long, 29, of Kansas City, Mo., began to emerge. Court records filed in Missouri showed that Mr. Long filed a name-change notice with the Jackson County recorder’s office, seeking to change his name to Cosmo Ausar Setepenra and saying he was a member of an indigenous group. A spokeswoman for the court said Mr. Long never filed a petition with the court, so the document was not legally binding. Though the police here have released little information about Mr. Long, a deeper portrait is beginning to emerge, based on a large trail left online.
Using that name, Mr. Long billed himself online as a self-help author and life coach who could help men become more “alpha.” Many of these digital breadcrumbs — web posts, YouTube videos and podcasts — are tied to Mr. Long’s given name, or some version of a new name, Cosmo Ausar Setepenra, which he filed court documents in Missouri to adopt in May 2015. (He never petitioned the court, so the name change was not legally binding, officials said.) Some of these posts and videos included biographical and personal information that aligned with the information released by the authorities.
Like the gunman who killed five police officers more than a week ago in Dallas, Mr. Long had served abroad in the military. There is evidence that he sought to do the right thing, pursuing higher education and serving his nation. There is also evidence of paranoid thinking, and an interest in shedding blood to advance the cause of oppressed peoples.
Records show that Mr. Long was in the Marines from 2005 to 2010, including a six-month deployment in Iraq. He was a sergeant and a data network specialist who earned several awards, including one for good conduct. In a podcast posted online, Cosmo pointed out that he had not seen combat. In an interview with a podcast host in March, Mr. Long identified himself as a member of the online community of so-called targeted individuals, people who believe they are being harassed with mind-control weapons and by armies of stalkers.
“I wasn’t like infantry and whatnot,” he said. “I’m not saying I was hopping out of the Humvees and kicking in doors and all that; that wasn’t me.” And in one YouTube video, titled “Protesting, Oppression and How to Deal With Bullies,” he discusses the killings of African-American men at the hands of police officers, including the death of Mr. Sterling, and advocates a bloody response instead of the protests that followed the deaths.
He was also assigned to Okinawa, Japan, and several locations in Southern California. “One hundred percent of revolutions, of victims fighting their oppressors,” Mr. Long said, “have been successful through fighting back, through bloodshed. Zero have been successful just over simply protesting. It doesn’t — it has never worked, and it never will. You got to fight back. That’s the only way that a bully knows to quit.”
Internet domain search tools show that Mr. Long registered a website called convoswithcosmo.club in April. Another website, registered privately, convoswithcosmo.com, is filled with blog posts and podcasts that match Mr. Long’s biography, including his stint in the military and educational career. The site promotes three self-help books and offers life coaching sessions for $119 an hour.
The podcasts, which began in April, are more focused toward helping men become more authoritative to impress women. But in videos from Dallas posted this month, the discussion turned to law enforcement and recent protests. A federal law enforcement official who spoke on the condition of anonymity in order to discuss an ongoing investigation said investigators believe “Cosmo” and Mr. Long are the same person, but have yet to make a final determination.
In one YouTube video, titled “Protesting, Oppression and How to Deal with Bullies,” Cosmo discusses the killings of African-American men at the hands of police officers, including the July 5 death in Baton Rouge of Alton B. Sterling, and he advocates a bloody response instead of the protests that the deaths sparked.
“One hundred percent of revolutions, of victims fighting their oppressors,” he said, “have been successful through fighting back, through bloodshed. Zero have been successful just over simply protesting. It doesn’t — it has never worked and it never will. You got to fight back. That’s the only way that a bully knows to quit.”
“You’ve got to stand on your rights, just like George Washington did, just like the other white rebels they celebrate and salute did,” he added. “That’s what Nat Turner did. That’s what Malcolm did. You got to stand, man. You got to sacrifice.”“You’ve got to stand on your rights, just like George Washington did, just like the other white rebels they celebrate and salute did,” he added. “That’s what Nat Turner did. That’s what Malcolm did. You got to stand, man. You got to sacrifice.”
In one of a string of podcasts the man posted, titled “My Story,” he expounded on the recurrence of the number seven in his life. “My father was born in 1947. My mother was born in 1957. And I took physical form on 7/17/87.” In Baton Rouge on Monday, the crime scene along Airline Highway had been dismantled and business was returning to normal. Bullet holes could be seen in a wall of the Hair Crown Beauty Supply Store, where the shooting took place. The city had begun the process of mourning the police officers Mr. Long gunned down — including Montrell Jackson, 32, an African-American and 10-year veteran of the Baton Rouge Police Department, who left behind a wife and son.
Sunday was the man’s 29th birthday. On a podcast posted on iTunes and dated April, the speaker, who gave his name as Cosmo, gives a sketch of his life story. He says he grew up in Kansas City, and was a straight-A student until about middle school, when he became fat and started getting C’s. As a child, he was something of a hustler who made extra money by making loans and charging interest.
At college and in Kansas City, Mr. Long appears to have had little contact with the authorities. “Say if I loaned out money to my family, even to my mother, I would make her pay me back, with interest,” he says. “If I loaned $20, I would make you pay me back $5 on Friday.”
The university police at the University of Alabama in Tuscaloosa had no interactions with Mr. Long during his single semester as a student there in 2012, a spokesman, Chris Bryant, said. Mr. Long made the dean’s list as a general business major. He received an associate degree in general studies from Central Texas College, and also attended Clark Atlanta University during the 2012-2013 school year, the schools confirmed. He says he lost significant weight in high school, bought his first car at age 16 and joined the Marines.
Mike Mansur, a spokesman for the Jackson County prosecutor’s office, which covers most of Kansas City, said that his office also had no record of contact with Mr. Long. Mr. Long’s military records show he served from 2005 to 2010, including a six-month deployment in Iraq. He was a sergeant and a data network specialist who earned several awards, including one for good conduct. He was also assigned to Okinawa, Japan, and several locations in Southern California.
Mr. Long had an uncontested divorce from Aireyona Osha Hill in 2011, according to court records. They listed that they had no children and that Mr. Long earned $500 a month. The couple listed no assets. He attended Central Texas College at its Marine Corps Air Station Miramar site in San Diego, and via distance education, earning an associate of arts degree.
Court records also showed that a case was filed against Mr. Long this year for not paying his local earnings tax. Papers in that case were served on his address last month and his mother accepted them, according to court records. Six days later, the tax case was dismissed. In 2011, court records show, he had an uncontested divorce from a woman named Aireyona Osha Hill. They listed that they had no children or assets and that Mr. Long earned $500 a month.
In Baton Rouge on Monday, the crime scene had been dismantled along Airline Highway and business was returning to normal. Bullet holes could be seen in a wall of the Hair Crown Beauty Supply Store, where the shooting took place. By 2012, Mr. Long had moved — briefly, apparently — to Tuscaloosa, Ala., where he spent one semester at the University of Alabama. He majored in business. He made the dean’s list. The University of Alabama police had no interactions with him during his time there. Mike Mansur, a spokesman for the Jackson County prosecutor’s office, which covers most of Kansas City, said his office also had no record of contact with Mr. Long.
On Sunday night, about half a dozen police vehicles went racing up the quiet tree-lined street in Kansas City, that is listed as his address. The officers blocked off the street — ordering reporters out of the area and advising neighbors to stay indoors. An unidentified man emerged from the house voluntarily and was taken into custody. He also attended Clark Atlanta University during the 2012-13 school year, and was in good academic standing, a university spokeswoman said. Although he claimed to be on the dean’s list there, he said he had dropped out, sold his two cars, gave away his possessions and traveled to Africa.
“I’m shocked,” said a neighbor, Simone Wilson, 29. Mr. Long appeared to be obsessed with the idea of self-improvement, for himself and for others, and he embraced more esoteric means of achieving those goals. A website registered to Mr. Long identifies him as a “freedom strategist, mental game coach, nutritionist, author and spiritual adviser.” He posted regular podcasts and blog entries sharing his philosophies about standing up for one’s rights.
Ms. Wilson said that she did not know Mr. Long well and that her only encounter with him was an occasional wave to each other, but he appeared to be close to his family, which included children. While traveling to Burkina Faso, Egypt, Ethiopia, Ghana, Kenya, Rwanda, Tanzania, and Uganda, he said, he wrote three books, covering topics like “holistic detoxification for health, well-being and success”; the “ancient esoteric secrets of the Pineal Gland”; and the “124 Universal Laws and their use in The Laws of The Cosmos.”
Colonel Edmonson had said on Sunday that a call came in to police dispatch early in the morning reporting “a guy carrying a weapon” near the Hammond Aire Plaza shopping center on Airline Highway — a commercial thoroughfare dotted with carwashes, car dealerships and chain stores that cuts through a leafy residential neighborhood. In 2015, Mr. Long filed the petition to change his name. In his statement of intent, he said he was a member of an “indigenous society” called the United Washitaw De Dugdahmoundyah Mu’ur nation. It was apparently a reference to the Empire Washitaw De Dugdahmoundyah. On its website, the group says it is “a multicultural, highly spiritual nation of aboriginal, indigenous Americans” who accept both “lineal and nonlineal” members. Ryan Lenz, a senior writer for the Southern Poverty Law Center, which tracks extremist groups, said that the group is largely African-American and subscribes to a “sovereign citizen” ideology that holds that they are “no longer beholden to any form of government.”
The shopping center is about a mile from the Baton Rouge Police Headquarters, where protesters had held numerous rallies since July 5, when the police fatally shot Mr. Sterling after a confrontation in front of a convenience store. On Monday morning, a man who answered a phone number on the website and said he was a leader of the group, Fredrix Joe Washington, said he had never heard of Mr. Long.
On Sunday, officers observed a man, wearing all black and holding a rifle, outside the beauty supply store, the colonel said. In the next four minutes, there were reports of shots fired and officers struck, said Colonel Edmonson, whose agency has taken the lead on the investigation, helped by local and federal investigators. “You have to understand that this is, Washitaw is a family, a close-knit gathered group,” said Mr. Washington, 71. “And we are about peace — and especially not about going out and killing some police officers. That is nothing but a devil.”
Federal investigators do not believe Mr. Long was directed by anyone and are still investigating whether he had any help and whether he was a member of any kind of group. This year, court records show, a case was filed against Mr. Long for not paying his local earnings tax. Papers in that case were served on his address last month, and his mother accepted them, according to court records. Six days later, the tax case was dismissed.
The law enforcement officers killed were identified late Sunday: In many of his podcasts, Mr. Long expounds at length on dating and self-improvement tips for men, arguing that they must display the characteristics of an “alpha” male. But a number of his other online offerings discuss the historical oppression of minorities, and America’s current racial problems.
• Montrell L. Jackson, 32, a 10-year veteran of the Baton Rouge Police Department. He and his wife had a baby in March. In a recent email he sent out to those interested in his ideas, he listed numerous instances of massacres of African-American people. And he offered a suggestion for those who encounter ideas similar to the one proposed by the presumptive Republican presidential nominee, Donald J. Trump, which would temporarily ban Muslims from the country.
• Matthew Gerald, 41, who had served with the Baton Rouge Police Department for less than a year. “Whatever new speech/scheme the mainstream news starts promoting, you go along with it (but with your spiritual eye open). Dont fight it, go with the ocean! If co-workers at your job start telling you we need to ban Islam, then agree!,” he wrote.
• Brad Garafola, 45, an East Baton Rouge Parish sheriff’s deputy and a father of four. He continued: “Say: ‘By-gosh that’s an excellent idea. And after that, we need to ban Christianity because of the KKK.’
Of the officers who were wounded, one was “fighting for his life” in the hospital on Monday, Colonel Edmonson said. “You say ‘That’s been long overdue. Whatever you are doing to help rid the USA of KKK or ANY other fringe religious extremist group call me, I’m your guy or gal.’”
Gov. John Bel Edwards of Louisiana said on CNN that the city was trying to recover. “We are not going to be defined by this horrible tragedy,” he said. On July 8, Lance Scurvin, a podcast host in Orlando, Fla., posted a note from Mr. Long on his Facebook page that seemed to suggest that Mr. Long was feeling paranoid about his safety. Mr. Scurvin, who is known for lending a sympathetic ear to conspiracy-minded guests, had interviewed Mr. Long in the past.
“I just want everyone to know that if anything may happen to me or with me, I am NOT affiliated with anybody, any group, nationality, association, religion, corporation, business, etc.” the note said.
In an online video expressing similar sentiments, Mr. Long said he had been a Nation of Islam member but was “not affiliated with it.”
Mr. Long appears to have been in Dallas after the killing of five police officers at a demonstration on July 7. In a video posted July 10, he sits on his bed in a hotel room with dark red walls and says to the camera that he is in Dallas on a book tour. He says that when Washington and others fought back against their British oppressors, they were celebrated.
“But when an African fights back, it’s wrong,” he says. “But every time a European fights back against his oppressor, he’s right.”
A spokesman for the Dallas Police Department had no comment on Monday when asked if the Dallas police were looking into whether Mr. Long was at the scene of the shooting on July 7, whether he had known the Dallas gunman and whether Mr. Long had played any role in the Dallas attack.
One of Mr. Long’s other videos, posted to YouTube but taken down as of Monday, shows him driving around what appears to be Baton Rouge. He approaches a number of African-Americans, strangers apparently, and doles out stray nuggets of advice and wisdom, deploying the salty language of the street. He comes off as a kind of black nationalist Tony Robbins. He talks about how people need to have different skills to succeed, to have more than one area of expertise. He refers to himself as a life coach, a freedom strategist, a real estate entrepreneur, an author, a teacher, a motivational speaker. And he tells them about his book.
“I want my people to succeed,” he says at one point. Later, he refers to “Arabs” and “Indians” who do not care about people, ostensibly African Americans, except when the latter give them their money. At one point he uses the word “cracker,” apparently in reference to whites. He also makes a passing reference to the shooting of Mr. Sterling.
“It’s two parts to freedom, bruh,” he says. “Knowing your rights and standing on your rights. They know we know our rights. But how many niggas stand on their rights? And if you not standing on your rights then you have no rights.”