The gunman who killed three Baton Rouge officers on Sunday morning was identified as a black male named Gavin Eugene Long.
Long, a Kansas City resident wearing all black, body armor, and a mask, died in the gunfight on his 29th birthday. But not before he took down officers Montrell Jackson, Matthew Gerald, and Brad Garafola.
The shooter also injured three other policemen. Nicolas Tuller is in critical condition while Bruce Simmons and another officer suffered non-life threatening injuries, USA Today reported.
While law enforcement officials previously believed Long had two accomplices, State Police Col. Mike Edmonson later refuted that.
Meet Cosmo Setepenra, the apparent alias for alleged Baton Rouge cop-killer Gavin Long: https://t.co/J71EchvfAS pic.twitter.com/hilkThzXwO
— The Daily Beast (@thedailybeast) July 18, 2016
The suspect joined the U.S. Marine Corps in 2005, serving as a sergeant and specializing in data networks. In 2008, he was deployed to Iraq and even became a sergeant in the same year, according to the New York Times. Long received an honorable discharge in 2010.
However, on his website, ConvosWithCosmo.com, he said an argument with his superiors caused him to be “blacklisted from getting employment since [he] got out of the Marines.”
The Grandview High School graduate of 2005 went by the pseudonym “Cosmo Setepenra” online. Long often ranted about racial injustices in online posts, videos, and to online radio host Lance Scurvin, according to the NY Daily News.
Scurvin, host of the “Lance Scurv,” said the shooter called a few times on the show and in privately randomly.
“I have no involvement with the man,” Scurvin clarified to the Daily News.
He said the last time Long contacted him was on July 11. The shooter complained to him about the lack of public body camera footage after Baton Rouge officers shot Sterling.
In addition, Long uploaded a video onto YouTube a week ago urging African Americans to “stand on their rights.”
“You gotta fight back – that’s the only way a bully knows to quit,” he said.
The Guardian reported that his rants suggest the attack was partly motivated by police killings of African Americans in recent years. However, it also said Long’s ramblings indicate paranoia and mental instability.
To add on to that, Long made clear that he has no connections with organized groups although he was a past member of the Nation of Islam and others.
The Kansas City Star reported a Gavin Eugene Long of Kansas City was on the University of Alabama’s Dean’s List in 2012.
The publication also published a marriage announcement in 2009 for Aireyona Osha Hill and Gavin Eugene Long. However, Missouri court records indicate Long filed for divorce from his wife in early 2011 and was finalized in May later that year. They do not have children together.
Most importantly, the shooter also praised Micah Johnson, the person behind the killings of five Dallas police officers, according to BuzzFeed.
