
Gavin Eugene Long
The Nation of Islam-linked Gavin Eugene Long, dead after a weekend shootout with Baton Rouge, Louisiana, police officers in which he allegedly killed three and injured three more, was "targeting" law enforcement, according to a report today.
It was the second straight mass shooting of police, following the attack on Dallas officers a week ago, in which the attacker pointedly aimed at cops.
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The New York Times said a state police official in Louisiana confirmed that "Long had been 'targeting' officers."
The motives behind the shootings by Long, a Marine who served in Iraq, a lifestyle coach and Kansas City, Missouri, resident, remain unclear in a lot of respects.
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But the details that are emerging from, the report said, "web posts, YouTube videos and podcasts," suggest "evidence of paranoid thinking, and an interest in shedding blood to advance the cause of oppressed peoples."
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"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," the report said.
His comment in that video: "One hundred percent of revolutions, of victims fighting their oppressors 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."
In the Dallas shooting, the shooter, identified as Micah X. Johnson, 25, of Dallas, was profiled by Police Chief David Brown.
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"He was upset about Black Lives Matter," Brown said. "He said he was upset about recent police shootings … upset at white people. He stated he wanted to kill white people, especially white officers."
In Baton Rouge, the victims were identified as Montrell L. Jackson, 32, and Matthew Gerald, 41, of the Baton Rouge Police Department, as well as Brad Garafola, 45, a sheriff's deputy in East Baton Rouge Parish.
After several years in the Marines, Long lived in Tuscaloosa, Alabama, and attended Clark Atlanta University, but then suddenly "sold his two cars, gave away his possessions and traveled to Africa," the report said.
The report said he was described at the time as obsessed with self-improvement.
He subsequently wrote several books on subjects such as the pineal gland, the laws of the cosmos and holistic detoxification while traveling Burkina Faso, Egypt, Ethiopia, Ghana, Kenya, Rwanda, Tanzania and Uganda.
He also wrote about bweing the "alpha" male.
On one of his videos he expressed that he had been a Nation of Islam member was was "not affiliated with it," the report said.
In Dallas, the shooter killed five and injured another seven officers, as well as two civilians.