The nation was put on edge once again as three police officers were killed. The shooting took place in Baton Rouge, La., which is still reeling from the fatal police shooting of Alton Sterling.
Sunday just before 9 a.m., police received a call about a man with a rifle. When officers arrived on the scene, they encountered 29-year-old Gavin Eugene Long, who was wearing all black and a face mask. He fired upon three responding officers, killing them.
Deputy Brad Garafola, 45, officer Matthew Gerald, 41, and officer Montrell Jackson, 32, were the victims. Long was killed by a SWAT officer at the end of the 10-minute ordeal.
Traveling from Kansas City, Mo., Long carried out the shooting on his birthday. U.S. law enforcement and government officials labeled him a “Black separatist” who previously posted videos on social media expressing his feelings about how Black people are being treated in America.
“I just wanted to let y’all know, don’t affiliate me with nothing,” Long said in one video, stating that he was not a part of Black Lives Matter, a movement that many in law enforcement and government have accused of radicalizing him. “I thought my own stuff; I made my own decisions; I’m the one who gotta listen to the judgment.”
His videos spoke of the recent shootings of Black men by police, most notably Philando Castile in Minnesota and Sterling.
Long was a veteran of the U.S. Marine Corps, serving as a data network specialist for five years. He joined the armed forces after graduating from high school and was honorably discharged with the rank of sergeant.
He was deployed from June 2008 to January 2009. Recent reports indicate that Long’s family members and friends said he suffered from post traumatic stress disorder. Currently there is no information on whether or not he was formally diagnosed. Long was taking the anti-anxiety drug Ativan, along with Valium and the sleep aid Lunesta.
The details about Long’s military service and what he saw and experienced while serving in Iraq have yet to be released. News outlets have filed Freedom of Information Act requests to obtain them.
In Dallas, 25-year-old Micah Xavier Johnson fatally shot five police officers earlier this month. He was enlisted in the U.S. Army Reserve as a 12W carpentry and masonry specialist. He was deployed from November 2013 to July 2014. His required training included handling of an M16 rifle or M4 carbine.
A 2015 Howard University study revealed that Black veterans are more often on the front lines of battle and more likely to have experienced previous traumatic experiences, leading to more incidents of PTSD. Black male patients are often misdiagnosed, with many not seeking treatment at all.
U.S. Marine veteran Malik Rodriguez served time in Afghanistan and said that it did not surprise him that Long was also a Marine and served in Iraq.
“Most of these shootings have been done by Marines,” he said. “We get treated like double dogs. You want them to be vicious and they are ready to attack.”
Rodriguez surmises that Long’s experience overseas involved him seeing just what America was doing in other countries, coupled with the fact that he was upset about the treatment of Black men when he returned.
“It’s almost like it’s uncontrollable,” Rodriguez said. “It’s hard to explain. The only way to understand is if you go through or see something like that that’s traumatizing and you can’t get it out of your head.”