INTERVIEW – JOE DIGENOVA – legal analyst and former U.S. Attorney to the District of Columbia

TOPICS: 

>> Baton Rouge Police Shooting: What We Know and Do Not Know

> Freddie Gray case: Verdict expected for highest ranking officer

Baton Rouge Police Shooting: What We Know and Do Not Know

JULY 17, 2016

Three police officers were shot dead and three others wounded in Baton Rouge, La., on Sunday morning. The gunman was killed, the authorities said. The area where the shooting took place has been the scene of protests in the weeks since the police shooting of Alton B. Sterling on July 5.

What We Know

• Around8:40 a.m.on Sunday, the police in Baton Rouge were responding to a report of a man with a gun dressed in black walking near the Hammond Aire Plaza shopping center on Airline Highway. In a confrontation that lasted less than 10 minutes, three officers were killed and three others wounded, officials said.

• Kip Holden, the mayor-president of East Baton Rouge Parish, identified the gunman as Gavin Long of Kansas City, Mo. Mr. Long was a former Marine who had served from 2005 to 2010, and he had been deployed to Iraq in 2008, according to military records. He had received a national defense service medal and a reward for good conduct.
• Mr. Long is believed to have been the only gunman, the police in Baton Rouge said at a news conference, despite earlier reports of two others being at large. Col. Mike Edmonson, the superintendent of the Louisiana State Police, said there was “no active shooter scenario going on in Baton Rouge.”

• The slain law enforcement officers were Montrell L. Jackson, 32; Matthew Gerald, 41; and Brad Garafola, 45. Mr. Jackson and Mr. Gerald were with the Baton Rouge Police Department; Mr. Garafola was an East Baton Rouge Parish sheriff’s deputy.

• According to the authorities, a 41-year-old sheriff’s deputy was in critical condition; a 51-year-old deputy was undergoing surgery for injuries that were not life-threatening; and a 41-year-old Baton Rouge police officer was hospitalized with injuries that were not life-threatening.
• At the time of the shooting, a plot against the police had been under investigation after a burglary suspect said he wanted to harm officers.

• The White House said that President Obama had been briefed and that federal officials were in touch with the local authorities. In a statement, Mr. Obama characterized the shooting as a “cowardly and reprehensible assault.”

• The police planned to hold another news conference at1 p.m.on Monday.

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Freddie Gray case: Verdict expected for highest ranking officer

By Farida Fawzy

Updated 6:17 AM ET, Mon July 18, 2016

(CNN)A Baltimore judge is due to issue a verdict Monday morning for Lt. Brian Rice, the highest-ranking police officer charged in the death of 25-year-old Freddie Gray, who suffered a broken neck in a police transport van on April 12, 2015.

Gray’s death ushered in a resurgence of Black Lives Matter protests across the country. The recent deaths of Alton Sterling and Philando Castile have popularized the movement once again.

Rice was one of the three officers on bike patrol the morning Gray was arrested, and he was the officer who put Gray into the transport wagon after he was shackled — failing to fasten his seat belt, according to the testimony of other officers.

Rice faces several charges, including:

– Involuntary manslaughter;

– Second-degree reckless assault/reckless endangerment, and;

– Misconduct in office for failing to secure Gray with a seat belt inside a police vehicle.

Same judge acquitted Nero, Goodson

Opting for a bench trial over a jury trial, Rice’s case will be heard by Judge Barry Williams — the same judge who acquitted Officer Edward Nero and Officer Caesar Goodson on all charges related to Gray’s death.

Of the six officers charged, Goodson faced the most serious charges — including second-degree depraved-heart murder. Legal experts have said Goodson’s acquittal could set the tone for the four officers still awaiting trial