US Police officers killed in Baton

At least three police officers and a suspect have been shot and killed in Baton Rouge, the second largest city in the US state of Louisiana. The officers in Baton Rouge were responding to a call of a man with a gun when shots were fired. Two Baton Rouge police officers and one sheriff's deputy were killed.One gunman is dead and police believe he was the only one involved in the attack, Mike Edmonson, superintendent of the Louisiana State Police, said in a press conference."We do not have an active shooter scenario in Baton Rouge," Edmonson said.Baton Rouge shooting: three US police officers killedMultiple US news outlets identified the suspected gunman in Sunday's fatal shootings of law enforcement officers in Baton Rouge as Gavin Long. CBS News said Long was a black male from Kansas City, Missouri.It was not immediately clear whether there was a link between the shootings and the recent unrest over the police killings of black men in Baton Rouge and Minnesota.Police did not give any information about a possible motive.US President Barack Obama condemned the "cowardly" shooting and demanded an end to such violence."It is so important that everyone ... right now focus on words and actions that can unite this country rather than divide it further," Obama said."We don't need inflammatory rhetoric. We don't need careless accusations thrown around to score political points or toadvance an agenda. We need to temper our words and open our hearts, all of us."Obama has repeatedly called for racial unity."We as a nation have to be loud and clear that nothing justifiesviolence against law enforcement," Obama told reporters at theWhite House."This has happened far too often."In an interview with national broadcaster NBC, Baton Rouge Mayor Kip Holden confirmed that three officers had been killed in the shooting near the city's police headquarters on Sunday.Three other officers were reportedly injured and hospitalised. "All indications at this point are that it was an ambush. One officer was at a convenience store ... and a woman approachedhim and said there was a man around the back of the store witha weapon. When he went to investigate he was fired upon ... it looks like a it was a planned ambush at this point," local journalist Bill Profta told Al Jazeera. Al Jazeera's Rosiland Jordan reported that one witness had seena "man dressed all in black" and that he "started firing indiscriminately between a service station and a convenience store".Louisiana Governor John Bel Edwards referred to the incident as "an unspeakable and unjustified attack on all of us". He said in a statement: "Rest assured, every resource availableto the State of Louisiana will be used to ensure the perpetrators are swiftly brought to justice."  Republican presumptive candidate Donald Trump, writing on Facebook, demanded "law and order" following the shooting incident. Protests Baton Rouge became the scene of large protests against police brutality after officers shot dead 37-year-old Alton Sterling on July 5.Police officers killed Sterling outside a supermarket, claiming he had a gun. The father of five, whose funeral was held on Friday, had been selling CDs.Footage of the moment Sterling was killed was captured on a mobile phone, which contains images some readers may find distressing, was circulated online - sparking outrage and then protests.