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Sunday, July 17

"Shots fired! Officer down!" Three law officers killed, 3 critically wounded in Baton Rouge (UPDATED 3:25, 5:05 PM EDT)

UPDATE 5:05 PM EDT
From CNN video of a press conference given by Baton Rouge police/other officials, two of the wounded officers are now in stable condition, a third has just received surgery. For more details see the video, posted with CNN's latest report on the situation updated at 4:55 PM EDT.  The update states that the dead shooter has been identified as Gavin Long (a black man) who was 29 years old as of today, his birthday.  

UPDATE
The latest update from The Advocate (Baton Rouge), filed at 2:12 PM, reports that the shooting suspect who was killed was from Missouri and that two "persons of interest" have been detained and are being questioned by police.
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Facts about the incident are still very sketchy. From the intial police dispatch, there's a possibility a policeman or a sheriff's deputy interrupted an attempted robbery at a gas station/convenience store. But the fear is that this was an ambush of police in the city where just days ago Alton Sterling, a black man, was shot by a white policeman while struggling with him -- a shooting recorded on a cell phone camera that prompted large-scale protests.  
The Advocate newspaper in Baton Rouge has published (at 12:25 PM) part of the transcript from the initial police call for help: 
Three law enforcement officers [one a sheriff's deputy] are confirmed dead, as well as one suspect, in a shooting Sunday morning near Airline and Old Hammond highways. Law enforcement believes two other shooters are at large.
From the police dispatch call:
About 8:45 a.m. on police dispatch radio, an officer makes a report about a “lady who came up and said there was a suspect walking with a (unintelligible) and an assault rifle out here behind the store."
 Two minutes later, there were frantic calls for help.
"Shots fired, officer down, shots fired, officer down!” an officer could be heard yelling.
“Got a city officer down, shots fired! Shots fired on Airline!”
“I don’t know where he’s f*** shooting from,” he said.
A video shot during a portion of the incident captures the chaotic scene:

[see website for videos]
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