Three LA. police killed in Baton Rouge; 3 wounded by masked shooter

A masked man shot and killed three police officers in Baton Rouge, La.. Three more have been wounded, the City confirmed on Sunday. The shooting began around 9 am CST. Police sources confirmed at 11:35 am that the shooter himself is also dead.

The City has been a hotbed of Black Lives Matter protests recently, after Baton Rouge police shot and killed Alton Sterling, an unarmed black man.one suspect is dead. Police have determined that the deceased suspect, a former US Marine, acted alone.

Two Baton Rouge police officers shot on Sunday morning have died, confirmed William Daniel, the city-parish's chief administrative officer, said "The Advocate," a local newspaper.

Baton Rouge Police spokesman Sgt. Don Coppola confirmed that several officers were shot by gunfire, the paper reported. East Baton Rouge Parish Sheriff's Office deputies may have also been among those shot, Coppola said.

Kip Holden, mayor-president of East Baton Rouge Parish, told CNN that "three officers are feared dead . . . . They are investigating," he said. "Right now we are trying to get our arms around everything."

Three police officers were killed, and more wounded, after being shot Sunday morning in Baton Rouge, the city's mayor said.

Mayor Kip Holden said gunfire erupted around 9 a.m. at Airline and Old Hammond highways. He was unable to provide any information on the gunman or gunmen.

Local resident Mark Clements said he had let his dogs out in the yard shortly after 8:30 a.m. when he heard roughly 10 to 12 gunshots. Later, he saw helicopters flying overhead.

The wounded officers are with the Baton Rouge Police Department and East Baton Rouge Sheriff's Office, Holden said, and have been taken to Our Lady of the Lake Regional Medical Center. "It's like a nightmare all over again," Holden said.

Both lanes of Airline Highway are shut down from Goodwood Boulevard to Old Hammond Highway and from Old Hammond to Drusilla Drive, according to East Baton Rouge Parish Sheriff's Office spokeswoman Casey Rayborn Hicks. The scene is still active, Hicks told The Advocate.

About 20 police officers wearing bulletproof vests are near the scene and a helicopter was flying overhead, the paper reported.

The Baton Rouge mayor's office urged urged people to stay home, stay off the streets for now in immediate wake of police shooting, according to The Advocate.

A witness told WBRZ-TV that a man was dressed in black with his face covered was shooting indiscriminately when he walked out between a convenience store and car wash across from Hammond Air Plaza. Police closed the streets between the police department's headquarters and Interstate 12.

WAFB-TV reported officers were shot along Airline Highway near Old Hammond Highway, but didn't specify the number of police. Two Baton Rouge police officers and one East Baton Rouge sheriff's deputy are dead, according to WBRZ, a local television station.

Vinsanau of WBRZ tweeted that more than a dozen marked and unmarked police cars have sped to the scene, and that a SWAT team is on location. State police armed with rifles are posted blocks away, Vinsanau tweeted.

On July 5, 2016, Alton Sterling, a 37-year-old black man, was shot several times after being tackled to the ground by two white Baton Rouge Police Department officers in Baton Rouge, Louisiana. Police were responding to a report that a man dressed in red and selling CDs used a gun to threaten someone outside a convenience store. The shooting was recorded by multiple bystanders. The videos show the confrontation and shooting at point-blank range.

The shooting led to protests in Baton Rouge and a request for a civil rights investigation by the U.S. Department of Justice.