Gavin Eugene Long has been identified as the shooter who killed three Baton Rouge police officers

Gavin Eugene Long has been identified as the shooter who killed three Baton Rouge police officers

East Baton Rouge Sheriff’s Deputy Brad Garafola was killed in the shootout along with Baton Rouge Police Officers Montrell Jackson and Matthew Gerald.  (AP)

The shooter who killed three Baton Rouge police officers has been identified as Gavin Eugene Long. The 29-year-old was a retired Marine and Iraq War veteran.

Authorities sought to learn more about a decorated ex-U.S. Marine sergeant who killed three police officers in Baton Rouge, some two weeks after police there shot dead a Black man, sparking nationwide protests including one shattered by the massacre of five Dallas policemen.

According to the Pentagon, Long served in the Marines from 2005 until 2010, achieving the rank of sergeant. A data network specialist, he was deployed to Iraq from June 2008 until January 2009, earning several medals and commendations.

Authorities declined to offer a possible motive for the attack in Louisiana’s capital, a city with a long history of distrust between African-Americans and law enforcement, which was inflamed by Sterling’s death.

Social media postings linked to an individual named Gavin Long and a Kansas City address cordoned off by police included a July 10 YouTube video saying he was fed up with mistreatment of Blacks and suggesting only violence and financial pressure would bring change.

He also said he was speaking from Dallas after going there to protest.

“It’s only fighting back or money. That’s all they care about,” he said to the camera. “Revenue and blood, revenue and blood, revenue and blood.”

In a separate video, he hinted that should “anything happen” to him, he wanted viewers to know he was “not affiliated” with any particular

movement or group.

“I’m affiliated with the spirit of justice, nothing more nothing less,” he said. “I thought my own thoughts, I made my own decisions.”

Galvin Long says in the brief video that, “if anything happens with me – because I’m an alpha male, I stand up, I stand firm and I stand for mine til the end, til the last day in this flesh, but I’m not the flesh, I’m not the body, I have a body – but I just want to let ya’ll know, don’t affiliate me with nothing.” He said, “I’m affiliated with the spirit of justice, nothing else.”