Baton Rouge shooting: Shooter targeted cops, says police

The former Marine and Iraq war veteran who shot dead three police officers in the southern US city of Baton Rouge at the weekend specifically targeted the cops, a state police official said today.

"He ambushed these police officers," Louisiana State Police Superintendent Colonel Mike Edmonson told CNN. "His prey was those police officers."

Yesterday's shooting, which left three other officers wounded, took place in a city scarred by racial tensions and protests against police brutality since the July 5 death of Alton Sterling, a black man shot at point-blank range by white police.

The gunman, identified as 29-year-old Gavin Long, was killed in a shootout with police.

Another Louisiana state police spokesman, JB Slaton, told The New York Times: "We are still trying to find out what his motive was, and that's going to be part of our investigation. But we believe he was targeting those officers."

The Baton Rouge shooting was reminiscent of the slaying of five police officers in Dallas a week ago, which was carried out by a military veteran seeking revenge for the deaths of black Americans at the hands of police.