As details emerged about the fatal police shooting in Baton Rouge Sunday, investigators accused a Kansas City, Missouri, man of killing two police officers and a sheriff’s deputy and wounding three officers. The shooting was the latest in a string of violent incidents targeting police, including an ambush attack on a Ballwin Police officer this month.
See also: Ballwin Officer’s Life “Forever Changed” By Ambush Shooting After Dallas Attack
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Police identified Gavin Eugene Long, a Missouri resident and Marine veteran who served in Iraq in 2008, as the gunman in Sunday’s attack, which occurred on Long’s 29th birthday. Authorities told USA Today that Long has no family ties to Baton Rouge and that the motive for the killing is unclear.
After Louisiana police named Long as the suspected shooter, Kansas City police swarmed a small turquoise frame house listed under his name with weapons drawn, according to the Associated Press. A Kansas City Star reporter who visited the home Sunday was met by a man with a long gun who declined to comment. Police also searched and removed boxes from an apartment in south Kansas City, according to Kansas City radio station KCUR.
Long, who is black, graduated from Grandview High School in 2005, according to the Kansas City Star. Missouri court records show he married in 2009, filed for divorce in 2011, and recently had a pending case over unpaid city earnings taxes dropped in Kansas City.
Long died in a shootout at the scene.
Louisiana police have said the attack was the act of a lone gunman, and officials are still investigating whether the shooter lured police to the scene. “We believe that the person who shot and killed our officers is the person who was shot and killed at the scene,” said Col. Mike Edmonson, superintendent of the Louisiana State Police.
Online, Long adopted the the alter ego “Cosmo,” even attempting to change his name to Cosmo Ausar Setenpenra in a rambling name-change application about his “aboriginal-indigenous appellation,” according to KCUR. As Cosmo, Long had an extensive life on social media, including a blog and podcast, portraying himself as a life coach, nutritionist, and “alpha male” who kept women “in check.” He said he was not Muslim. He also posted concerns about police killings of black men, including one tweet calling Micah Johnson, who killed five police officers in Dallas, as “one of us.”
Contact Lindsay Toler by email at [email protected] or on Twitter @StLouisLindsay. For more from St. Louis Magazine, subscribe or follow us on Facebook and Twitter.
