we can't get people to do this job. we need solutions. and the community issues are complex. i don't think we need a rerun of a partisan conversation. the cops are not partisan. they're problem solvers. for whatever their faults are, they're doers. they're not talkers. we need more doing and less talking to solve these issues with respect. >> thank you, eugene. we just heard chief brown out in dallas say, we're hiring. come join up and work on change from within. and we'll assign you to the neighborhood where you grew up. a very appealing argument from a guy who grew up in the local neighborhood, came up through as a police officer, came up through commanding the s.w.a.t. team there. they're still burying the five

dead from their department. let's go to the room in louisiana. we're inside the two-minute warning where we're going to hear from the governor and the state police superintendent. by the way, the superintendent was on the job himself for 35 years. before the senior most post, governor before life in politics was eight years in the u.s. army. they will be appearing with the local sheriff from the county or parish that encompasses baton rouge. and, again, i'm quite sure when they booked this for 4:00 p.m., at least east coast time, they thought we would have a resolution. who knows. maybe they're coming out to announce kind of resolution. but the live pictures we're seeing from baton rouge would not indicate that this is a settled crime scene.

i'm afraid the opposite is still true. as you can tell this is hastily put together. no one in state government realized they'd be dealing with this kind of a crisis on a summer sunday morning. you see the robust police presence there. this road we're going to know so much more about by the close of business today. airline highway. we now have the participants coming to the lectern. good afternoon. major duck cane with louisiana state police. we're here to give you detail of what occurred in baton rouge,

louisiana. today with us speaking will be state police superintendent colonel mike ed monson. he's going to give a rundown whatever we can provide now. sheri sheriff sid gotro to speak to his loss of officers today. followed by chief lost his officers today followed by u.s. attorney walt green to give comment on federal perspective followed by remarks by baton rouge mayor kip holden and our governor ron bell edwards. we will not take questions at the end. we're going to provide you everything that we know up to this point. so the briefing will conclude with governor edwards' remarks. thank you. >> first of all, thank you all for being here. i'm colonel mike edmonson, superintendent louisiana state police. first of all let me tell you something, we're getting phone calls from around the nation, from around the world, we want and need your prayers. baton rouge is in need of your prayers right now. we thank you for those and we want you to know we appreciate

every single one of them going on at the time. we're not going to take questions at the end of this because it is an active, it is an ongoing investigation that's got a lot of moving parts right now with multiple agencies. louisiana state police is a lead agency with regard to the investigation itself. we'll be working very, very closely with these baton rouge parish sheriff's office and the baton rouge police department from a local perspective. and then we'll be joined from all our federal partners as we work the many, many leads that's taking place right now. we're going to give you a 1-800 number for the public to have as we move forward. let me make something clear right now. you're getting a lot of information. you're interviewing a lot of people. if it does not come from myself, the chief of police or the east baton rouge parish sheriff, if it does not come from these individuals, we cannot confirm it as being factual. so just know that up front. we're going to have another press conference tomorrow afternoon at 1:00 p.m. central standard time.

1:00 p.m. tomorrow. we'll give you complete updates as we have at the time. but we want to allow our detectives and all our investigators the crime scene is a very large crime scene. we're going to tell people in the baton rouge area if you do not need to be -- absolutely need to be in that area of airline highway and old hammond highway, please stay out of that area because we're going to be working that throughout the evening, throughout the night as we work in that specifics. please also know there is not an active shooter scenario in baton rouge. no active scenario that involves a shooter in the city of baton rouge. we do believe based on the information that we have, again, this is ongoing, we believe that the person that shot and killed our officers, that he is the person that was shot and killed at the scene. so that's what we know right now. what we do not believe or do we have any other shooter held up in any other area in the baton rouge area, but understand this investigation has got a lot of moving parts and pieces. we'll be moving and going on

each one of those, but right now there's no active scenario shooting -- shooter scenario going on in baton rouge. i'll tell you this, i'm going to read it because i want to make sure you have the information so you have it as accurate. today approximately 8:40 a.m. several louisiana law enforcement officers were shot near airline highway and old hammond highway. a call came into central dispatch the baton rouge city police department saying there was a guy carrying a weapon, carrying a rifle, walking in that particular area. and that was the information that came in to us. multiple officers were transported to local hospitals for treatment. i will tell you that three officers have died from injuries. two from the baton rouge police department and one from the east baton rouge parish sheriff's office. one east baton rouge parish sheriff deputy in critical condition, just got out of surgery a short time ago. the sheriff and the chief are going to speak on those. two additional officers suffered non-life threatening wounds. they are in stable condition at the hospital now. at approximately 8:40 a.m. baton

rouge pd officers at a convenience store observed the individual, he was wearing all black, standing behind a beauty supply store holding a rifle. at approximately 8:42 a.m. reports received of shots fired. at approximately 8:44 a.m. reports received of officers down on the scene. at 8:45 reports receive of more shots being fired. at 8:46 a.m. reports received that the suspect, again, that was wearing all black standing near a car wash located right next to the convenience store. at 8:48 our emergency ems units started arriving at the scene. they were staging so they could start approaching and getting the bodies that were at the scene to render first aid. officers engaged the subject at that particular time and he ultimately died at the scene. that was officers that were responding to the scene itself. state police and multiple agencies respond to the scene attempt to secure the area and identify possible potential suspects and further threats in

the area. we in law enforcement ask the public, look, stay vigilant. we want you if you see something that is suspicious and you know what is suspicious and out of the ordinary in your particular area, call your local police department. you know that number, call that particular number. if you need one from us, and we ask if you see suspicious activity and you don't contact your local police department, call the following number, it is 1-800-call-fbi. 1-800-call-fbi. 1-800-225-5324. 1-800-225-5324. 1-800-call fbi. again, we do not have an active shooter scenario in the city of baton rouge. we are working the investigation. it's going to take us in multiple directions, a lot of leads out there we're following on. you could help us the public if you see something out of the ordinary, please call us. again, we'll have a 1:00 p.m. press conference tomorrow afternoon. and we'll completely update you

on anything that's going on with this. sheriff. >> thank you, colonel. as the colonel just stated, we've had six officers that were shot today. three of which are baton rouge city police officers, two of which are deceased. one is still alive. and chief dabity will speak to those individuals in a minute. we have three east deputies shot, one is deceased 45-year-old, one is in critical condition fighting for his life as we speak, 41-year-old. and one has non-life threatening injuries, he's in surgery now. he's 51-year-old. each one of these individuals married, each one of these individuals have family. we are grieving as a law enforcement community. we grieve for each other, we

grieve for our loss and we grieve for our families. and we ask for your prayers. not only for us like i say for the deputies but their families and their co-workers. as law enforcement we are a family. and we stand here together, as you can see. but our number one priority is the safety of our community, the safety of the people that live here, the safety of law enforcement. we've activated the east louisiana sheriff's association task force. as you can see behind me several of my fellow sheriffs are here. we want to assure you that we are having a coordinated effort that is going forward to ensure that we continue to provide the services necessary to protect the citizens of this parish. with god's help we will get through this. to me, this is not so much about

gun control as it is about what's in men's hearts. and until we come together as a nation, as a people to heal as a people, if we don't do that in this madness continues, we will surely parish as a people. so i will just ask for your prayers and your support for all of the families of those that are involved here today and continue to pray for this parish, this city, this state and this nation. >> it's with a heavy heart that i stand here today. as the others have said we've had six officers shot today. three of those officers will be

our p.d. officers. two were killed in the line of duty, one is 41 years old and has just under a year of service, the other is 32 years old with ten years of service. our one non-life threatening injury officer is 41 years old with nine years of service. we would ask for prayers from this community, for our officers, for our families, for the families that have been affected by today's sense leles- senseless shootings that went on this morning. prayers for all law enforcement, not just the brpd, but as the sheriff said we stand united. this is a united front. make no mistake about that. this is very united. public safety remains our priority. and we will continue to do our job in the light of what's

happened. we have e several agencies from outside coming in to lend support and help. our officers have been depleted for the last 12, 14 days. so there's other agencies who've been coming in to help us and back us up. and that is for this community's safety. as the sheriff said we activated the sheriff's task force, and it is a coordinated effort going forward. we'll get through this as a family. we'll get through this as a community. but i want all of brpd officers know i support you. every single one of them i stand with you, i stand beside you, and we are going to get through this. and we're going to get through this together. this is not going to tarnish this city or this department. we're going to move forward. thank you. >> this is indeed a tragic day for the city of baton rouge. on behalf of the attorney

general of the united states and myself, i want to offer my condolences to the family as well as the officers that were involved in this shooting. i can promise you with the backing of the department of justice and attorney general, all federal law enforcement assets that are needed will be given to this investigation. we will go wherever it takes us to conclude this investigation. i will tell you that our continued support with federal, state and local law enforcement in this matter has been great. we have agents from the atf, fbi, as well as united states marshals service as well as people in my office currently assisting with the investigation. and we'll continue to do so until justice is served. thank you. >> let me tell you what, this is truly a sad day in baton rouge. as we now meet again behind senseless killings. we continue to ask the question and continue to make the statement, let peace prevail in

baton rouge and this parish. we must look ahead. the president has acknowledged this violence and will reiterate those things i think around 3:30 our time. but again, the people that you see here today, let me say unequivocally, the president has responded to the needs of baton rouge. not only that, the agencies you see here have always been partners with the state police, the sheriff's office and the city police. we are one family all seeking justice for all of our people. and so let me thank the president and also mrs. jarrett for their calls and the governor will elaborate on the call he got also from the president. but we must say that we ask you

now for your prayers. we also pray for those who were killed or injured today in the incident. we want you to pray for their families and be with them not only today but in the future. they are our first responders. now we pledge to them and their families that we will be their first responders who must strive every day to be one nation under god, indivisible with liberty and justice for all. we thank our officer who is have fallen in the line of duty. we pray for their families. we pray for peace everywhere. god bless you. >> well, today has been a very tough day here in baton rouge and in louisiana and in our country. and absolutely unspeakable heinous attack on law enforcement here in baton rouge claimed the lives of two baton

rouge police officers, one sheriff's deputy and injured three others, one of whom today right now as we speak is absolutely fighting for his life. it's unjustified. it's unjustifiable. the violence, the hatred just has to stop. and it's at times like this i wish the command of the english language that i have were more adequate to the task to convey the full range of emotions that i am feeling and to express them on behalf of the state of louisiana. earlier today i alone with mayor holden and the law enforcement community here gathered with the family members of the victims at the hospital. and when i tell you unspeakable tragedy, it's unspeakable. that these men risking their lives to protect and serve this community were taking out --

were taken out the way that they were. they are real life everyday heroes. as you've been told by colonel edmonson, this is an ongoing investigation, there are multiple moves parts, multiple agencies. i want to reassure everyone here in baton rouge and around the state, we are doing everything humanly possible to make sure that everyone is protected. every resource is going to be available to be used to bring these perpetrators, if there's more than one, to justice. and obviously it means federal, state and local. you just heard from the u.s. attorney from here in the middle district in baton rouge, but we're being aided by the fbi, the atf agencies as well. but i also spoke with the president of the united states a couple of hours ago who called to express on behalf of himself and the first lady, but also the

people of the united states their condolences, their best wishes obviously for those who were injured for a full and speedy recovery, but also their prayers for the people here in baton rouge and around the country. we have to do better. an attack on one of us is an attack on all of us. and the people who carried out this act, the individuals, they do not represent the people of baton rouge or of the state of louisiana or what's best about our country. they don't represent the values we stand for. obviously our community is hurting. and only through peace and unity can we heal. and that's going to take constructive dialogue. there simply is no place for more violence. that doesn't help anyone, it doesn't further the conversation, it doesn't address

any injustice perceived or real, it is just an injustice in and of itself. and we are not going to tolerate more hate and violence tearing apart the communities and families of louisiana. so as i did just a few days ago, i'm inviting the people around the country to join their prayers to mine that our nation, that our community here can heal, that we can get past this. and certainly pray for the recovery of those officers who were injured today, but pray for all of their officers, all of our officers here in baton rouge and around the state and around the country and their family members. who every day expose themselves to great risk of harm simply so they can protect and serve as they have sworn to do. as you were told by colonel edmonson, we are not going to take questions at this point.

there will be another briefing, press briefing, tomorrow at 1:00. and we will then update you all with any additional information that we gather between now and then. so i want to thank you for covering this press conference. and, again, ask everyone to join with the folks of louisiana in solidarity so that as a nation we can heal, we can get past this. and we can be what we're supposed to be in the united states of america. because we're not there today. god bless you. >> 1:00 tomorrow we'll have a briefing. anything significant happens before then, we'll make sure you're notified of it. but please stay with us on that. thank you all very much. >> some genuine emotion in that room. you see it go on among members of law enforcement, politicians who were there.

they have suffered a loss of life and a lot of their remarks were in the context of the fact that baton rouge has been in the national spotlight since the death of alton sterling and that police-involved shooting july 5. they've had neighboring jurisdictions come help them out and supplement various shifts, just as for a host of other reasons having lost five officers, dallas texas had police from arlington, texas, and surrounding communities, especially ft. worth, neighboring city come in to help them. ari melbourne's been watching this having been part of the coverage early in this story. he's out in cleveland prior to the start of the gop convention. ari, one thing we noted here, we heard from the head of the state police said this was a single suspect as far as they know and that suspect has been killed.

but what's incongruous is the live pictures we keep seeing that are more robust than a crime scene investigation, and certainly would indicate ongoing perhaps possibility of a kinetic situation, and two, some of the speakers used plurals. especially notable was the governor saying the people responsible for this. so that's going to be a puzzle. >> that's absolutely right. look, there is no doubt that over the course of the day the investigative and security response operated on the prospect of more than one suspect. that makeshift perimeter, the officers we saw patrolling with long guns, officers moving in squad cars with their lights on and emergency setting, we've reported that throughout the day. viewers have seen some of that, as you point out, brian. what i think is fair to say is according to the law enforcement police authorities who just briefed, they referred to one shooter deceased and no active shooter scenario there in baton rouge. so that is the law enforcement

briefing. that is the latest news we can report. and that would suggest that all other precautions taken were just that, precautions running down the possibility of other suspects. indeed we reported that at one point civilian cars were pulled over, people were questioned, there was an intense focus on the perimeter in trying to ensure that there was no other suspect. but that's the briefing. then as you reference, brian, governor bell edwards did use the plural or said possibly the plural perpetrators, as did other folks. my reading of that is you have essentially governor or politicians making reference to a fluid story throughout the day. but i'm reporting here and confirming off of what law enforcement briefed, which is one deceased perpetrator. the only other thing i would flag immediately on the timeline is 8:44 officers down and then over that course of the timeline according to the briefing we just heard, about 20 minutes from the first call in, and we played some of that for our viewers earlier through the altercation, the shooting, the killings and then the resolution

of at least that one shooter with a lot more happening afterward. so this was a very rapid fire, very quick scenario with officers responding, with officers tragically killed but ultimately with the assailant killed within that 20-minute window. i'll tell you what we did not hear, and this is not abnormal because it is such an early stage in the investigation, but i will note we did not hear any finite or specific description of this deceased suspect or deceased killer's motives. we did not hear whether they were in the process of one crime when officers arrived and then they returned fire as is so often the case when officers come into a live scene and risk their lives to try to restore order. or whether this was as some have questioned today something that involved a more conscious plot, a premeditated attempt to target officers. we know of course to state the obvious that during the fire fight officers were directly and illegally targeted because you have three officers down. but during this briefing i did not hear law enforcement speak

to the motive and that will remain a major question. and we're just minutes away from president obama speaking. his remarks earlier today in writing referenced the fact motive was unknown and that this kind of, quote, cowardly attack on our men and women in uniform, on our police officers, is completely unjustified, unacceptable and must stop. but i suspect over the course of this investigation when u you have the feds and local authorities involved, they will bear down on who the suspect was and what the motive was. even with the suspect dead that matters a great deal. >> ari, scenarios under which there could be a single suspect, single gunman down and killed by police and the use of the word plural would include, correct me if i'm wrong, if that suspect was known to be a part of a larger organization, if that suspect had perhaps non-gunman accomplices, that kind of thing. >> exactly.

some of the legal terminology you might hear in a situation where you have someone involved but not on the scene would be an accessory, or in some investigations accessory after the fact if someone is alive and helping but didn't help the underlying crime. or, again, we're talking investigative possibilities the notion that someone had some associates that they may have plotted or spoken with who weren't there and who were not active shooter. so it is certainly possible that law enforcement are threading the needle trying to address factually a community that is obviously dealing with this horror today and saying they don't believe that there are other live shooters, that is people who are at the scene out around the community and they want to speak to that factually while their investigation may be looking at the possibility of any potential coordination, planning or prep before or in some cases even potentially after the fact, which could lead, as you say, to one deceased shooter but some sort of plural investigative pattern. >> ari, our legal correspondent, yes, but also standing by out

there in cleveland, ohio, for the start of the gop convention and brought into this coverage as we all have been. we have three officers who've been killed in the line of duty in baton rouge, louisiana. two of them brpd, baton rouge police department, one sheriff's deputy. the surrounding county or parish is known as east baton rouge parish. you see on our screen where we're waiting to go next. that is the white house briefing room in the west wing. the president we will get from the white house the two-minute warning when they are ready. j jim, the tempo of stories involving violence, the tempo of occasions called for the president to come out, issue a statement has been unlike we can

ever remember. >> that's right, brian. this has become a somewhat of an unfortunate scenario for the president to come out and address the american people after deadly shootings involving police. and it was only last tuesday the president attended memorial ceremony for five police officers who were cut down in dallas. and after today's shootings of those two police officers and one sheriff's deputy in baton rouge, the white house issued a statement in which the president said that this was a cowardly and reprehensible assault. and the president has been paying pretty much attention to this issue very aggressively. in this past week alone he held two -- he convened two large meetings here in the white house which involved police officers, civil rights activists, politicians, all in an effort to try to get to the bottom of this

issue of a distrust that the president has talked about before between many in the public and law enforcement. and after the police shootings of two black men first in baton rouge and then the one in minnesota, the president acknowledged that there is a distrust between many in the community and the police and that more has to be done to eliminate racial bias and law enforcement, brian. >> jim, kind of an incredible irony that one of those white house sponsored gatherings for civilians and police to come together to talk about this, the governor of louisiana and the superintendent of louisiana state police, two of the men we just heard from in this totally different context were in attendance. and now today they are leading the mourning of three police officers and informed us that one more is truly fighting for his life. >> that's right. and the president has been right

down the middle on this issue. he gives no side either right or wrong. says this is an issue has to be solved by both sides. >> jim, we usually get a two-minute warning and we can start focusing our attention there. mark's here with me in the studio and has been part of our coverage all day. as a former police officer, former detective, am i about right in that how the wording could be true that they're talking about the only gunman, the only suspect down, but they also seem to be using a plural. >> yeah, i definitely caught onto that as well. i think nothing in what was said indicates that this individual who was down shot and as they called it down is the only person that could be involved in any planning or assisting an

execution in what i refer to as accessories. there may be additional accessories to the crime or to the offense involved. nothing excluded that. and maybe one reason they really didn't want to answer any follow-up questions, they wanted to leave it as flat as possible. but there is still the possibility that there are others who may be connected, who may have information, et cetera. and given the flurry of activity that's still going on there, it's quite obvious that there is either some additional information collection or evidence collection. this is still a very active investigation, an active crime scene. and it's still a very real possibility that it will expand from these points that they've been into larger areas as information comes in and they're able to validate it. >> were you a bit surprised we haven't heard even the most basic description of the dead gunman? name, description, age, build,

say nothing for identification. >> yeah. it is a little bit surprising, but to tell you the truth, it really depends on the flow -- it's the ebb and tide of the investigation. there may be reasons why you may not want to disclose a person's name, identity, description, et cetera. and keep in mind they may want to firm up the fact that they have a clear identity on this person because more than likely that person's residence, his associates, they will become part of this investigation, this long-term investigation. his residence may with all -- you know, it's more than likely that his residence will then be searched, neighbors will be interviewed, friends and family will be spoken to. they will try to make connections to see who it is he associates with or he or she associates with on a regular basis. so this is really fluid situation. and they're going to cover, you know, going to dot every i and cross every t and cover every base and examine every

possibility and that's why we expect to be a protracted period of time that this investigation will take place. >> the control room while mark claxon and i are having this conversation is telling me we independently are getting an id on the gunman, the suspect. go ahead, pat, tell me what you know. gavin long. suspect name gavin long. is that all we have? do we have anything else? we're trying to confirm he is of kansas city. several law enforcement officials say the man shot and killed today in baton rouge in the shootout with police and sheriff's deputies, gavin long is the name of the individual, born 1987, kansas city. always assume that to be kansas city, missouri, not kansas city, kansas, but we will see.

that's all we've got. i assume after all of these, mark, i mean, you can just picture law enforcement descending on a garden apartment or house somewhere or high-rise and neighbors not quite knowing where they fit in in a huge national story kind of say, oh, that guy who lived there. >> yeah, it's clear to me that probably what has occurred is they had already responded to whatever locations they've attached this individual to prior to releasing his information. that's to avoid giving a heads up to what the potential next move is going to be. so it's going to be -- this is a long haul. and this is going to be an arduous investigation. it's going to be very tricky. you have to be meticulous in a way you approach it and the information that you gather. you have to examine and take advantage of any opportunity to connect dots. and if there are no opportunities, you have to be frank and honest that there aren't opportunities to connect dots and this is what it is. >> when you come upon a suspect,

in this case a dead suspect, let's say he's not doing any favors to law enforcement and didn't carry any identification. where do you begin? >> there are several different ways you can go about that. you know, forensically you can examine a person's fingerprints, just in case they had a past criminal record, et cetera. >> compare them to the database. >> compare to the database. there's always an opportunity to connect with associates that can give you tentative identification that you can lock into a family member who can verify identification. so there are several different ways you can go about identifying a person. that's usually the most challenging aspect oftentimes a very challenging aspect is who do i have. because oftentimes who you have is live you some root or some path to lead in the investigation itself. you know, do victimology for example, this person may be a victim of, you know, this shooting itself. but something about that person, that person's life, their connections, their attachments, where they live, who they associate with, that's very

epful and valuable in the investigation. >> wouldn't be uncommon to surround a car that belonged to this guy. wouldn't be uncommon for that car to be rigged. wouldn't be uncommon when law enforcement arrive at his last known address for that address to be rigged. this is part of the danger of your line of work. >> and that's the new danger in current day law enforcement now whereas the tendency for police is to immediately respond because there's a sense of urgency. now you have to think three, four, five steps ahead and think about what could be, what could this be, is there an ulterior motive, a secondary attack plan here. you have to think about all these things and coordinate them very well. and that all takes time and in this age of, you know, immediate gratification want a lot of information very quickly, it's difficult to do. but i think in large part that these police agencies and entities have done a good job at providing information. it may take a little time, but

insisting on being as accurate as possible. don't want to give misinformation out there. >> let's go to washington. an hour ago in terms of hunt for information on this suspect, justice correspondent pete williams. pete, what do we know so far? >> well, brian, several law enforcement officials tell me and my colleague from wnbc that the suspect that was shot and killed today in the shootout with the police in baton rouge is from kansas city, missouri. born in 1987, name gavin long. information that we believe is accurate, but again, this is a very confused picture, is that the police were -- the current theory is that the police were lured to this shootout today by a 911 call. now, the initial question was, was the 911 call from someone who innocently saw a guy with a gun and wanted the police to get there, or was the 911 call from those involved in ambushing the police?

and our best understanding is it's the latter. that some people, long and others, perhaps two others from missouri, according to what we've been told, made this call. and that's what lured the police there. now, that's initial information to be confirm ed as this investigation goes on. but that's our best understanding from law enforcement officials. so the point here is that what we're told is the people involved in the shooting were not from baton rouge. they were from missouri. why they came there, whether they were connected with folks in baton rouge, we were also told there's some connection with a group called the sovereign citizens, which has some strong feelings about being opposed to police. but one of the puzzling things about this is the sovereign citizens believe that the only legitimate law enforcement authority is the sheriffs, local sheriff. and there were three deputies

shot today. so all this is still very confused, but the main piece of information here is that we've been told by several law enforcement officials that the gunman, the one who fired the shots and was in turn killed by the police is from missouri named gavin long, born in 1987. >> pete, a couple of things, this would explain the use of plural language, because one individual the gunman in this may well be dead and down, but certainly there were accessories and accomplices and is part of a larger group. and second, the big question, obviously, why baton rouge? of all the places on earth, one of two cities in the united states identified with a police-involved shooting in recent weeks. >> and that's to be determined, i think. whether they were lured there, attracted there by the violence that was already going on, whether they had planned this themselves, who knows. i mean, that's all to be

determined. but in terms of whether there were other active shooters going on, the state police were very definitive to say in their news conference that there were no active -- there are no other active shooters in the baton rouge area. i know of nothing to indicate that isn't the case. however, we keep being told by law enforcement people that there are tactical units responding to various places. so perhaps they're still trying to chase down these whether there were in fact others involved. it still isn't clear how many people were there when the shots were fired. we've heard there could have been as many as three including this man gavin long. but that is all yet -- i think that's fair to say that the police aren't sure themselves and they're still trying to chase that down. >> all right. pete williams, who is just off the phone himself in our washington bureau with more information on this gunman. this is all we have. we have an individual apparently born in 1987 named gavin long of

kansas city, missouri. and that's all we've got. it's still early hours of this thing. again, there is a distinction between what the police are saying is no longer an active shooter situation. that part of police gnomnomencle that's now become part of civilian language, that probably is true, that does not mean an enormous investigation isn't going on including units still responding, chasing down leads, going to different addresses, chasing down individual people, interviewing people. so obviously a real fraught situation, real nerve racking situation in baton rouge, louisiana. cal perry, what have you been able to gather? >> one of the things that we heard an hour ago, and we decided that it wasn't worth passing on because we hadn't independently confirmed it, and

we still have not, is that wdsu, our affiliate in louisiana, reported that a group of men from missouri were in a nearby workout facility, some kind of a gymnasium. and this they were sourcing through the mayor's office. and they said this group of men quite possibly had lured the police to this area and that's when this ambush took place. now, that would seem to coincide with what our pete williams is reporting out of washington, d.c. and as we continue to put this together, i want to stress in the very early hours of this we are sometimes dealing with imperfect information. and this may be one of those cases. but what it does tell us is that officials in baton rouge were clearly on some kind of look out for people not just out of state but from missouri. as we continue to track who this shooter was, they will of course be focusing on who he was there with and who he may have traveled to louisiana with, brian. >> and, again, that would include the use of plural language. and that would include why they

believe the one gunman in this is in fact dead. >> exactly. the other thing that it was sort of also indicate we've heard our pete williams talking about this sovereign citizens movement. as we sort of all grasp the idea that this could have been something organized, the sovereign citizens movement has been known in the past not just to work in groups, but has focused on police in particular. now, they've usually done it through paperwork. they harass the federal government through massive amounts of paperwork, the belief of the sovereign citizens movement is this bizarre belief they can abide by the laws that they decide. and they've targeted authorities in the past, again, through the use of the legal system. they've pressured them through the courts to try to challenge things from parking tickets all the way up through felonies. this would certainly be a massive escalation chrks is why at this point not only the

authorities but we add nbc news cannot independently confirm that this shooter, again from kansas city, out of state as it were to louisiana, is connected to groups at this point. >> all right. cal perry, thanks. we're waiting as you see in the lower right hand portion of your screen what was billed as a 4:30 eastern time appearance has now slid 15 minutes and probably will then some by president obama. in addition to mark claxson here in our studio, we have eugene o'donnell standing by to talk to us, law professor at john j. college of criminal justice, former police officer himself. and, eugene, as you watched that news conference, we had a number of speakers. what did your ears pick up on? >> well, it's stark. remember that the new york cops were not killed by a new yorker. they were killed by somebody who came from philly. this also raises the issue, and i think might explain why the authorities here are not giving

more information, kansas city's a relatively far distance away. literally now you want to know every movement. and it sounds like they might have some idea of who these guys were in advance. but when did they leave kansas city? with whom did they leave kansas city? how did they make their way down here? literally it's sort of like looking at a crime scene that could be many hundreds of miles or more depending on where they started from. so where was it they stopped? and this also raises the intriguing question, i think, of further information from people in convenience stores, motels, who might have some inkling of what these guys were up to. so now you get a further widening area. and assuming one or more of these people lived in kansas city no doubt serve search warrants and other investigative techniques that will be used. >> also, eugene, electronics. i mean, these days you leave

such an electronic signature. >> correct. >> wherever you go. on your walk home from work, you're picked up by multiple cameras, you're on an interstate, there's now a toll paying methods that keep meticulous records of your vehicle's progress. >> absolutely. not necessarily the best preventive tool, but it's quite a good investigative tool. there's an awful long record typically, not always, but typically if they drove, if they flew, you'll get some timeline of when they left and who was with who and whether there's a larger number of people involved here. but this kind of explains them not being local that law enforcement is scrambling to figure out where they're from and how many of them there are. and to check all that information out. and also raises, again, the possibility that there's a larger number of people that would have some insight into them as a group and what they were up to. >> and, eugene, this threat that pete williams first raised, if

it turns out to be the plot line of this story, i assume of the people across this country are going to learn a lot like groups like sovereign citizens, that's just -- sovereign citizens just the tip of the iceberg. >> that's right. if you're around the federal courts, any court system, there are a lot of unhinged people, some of them are under the banner of one or the other of crazy separatist group, certainly had killings involving federal agents. certainly people -- the bureau of land management used to get threatened a lot. and the irony here of course is that the police when they're doing good and they most often are doing good, they protect the poor and the powerless and the weak. so these are people that are most scary people because they don't have any respect for the government would like to see it brought down. and sadly there's more than a few of them. and we do have unfortunately people that conjure up apocalyptic scenarios and try to arm themselves and are waiting for the big day that it's all going to unravel.

again, it's up to us to make sure that never happens, that whatever disagreements we have they're done democratically and with consensus to the greatest extent that we can do it. and, again, here are the police, the actors, the givers, not the takers, the doers, not the bloggers, they go into harm's way. ambiguous situations, any cop will tell you every call you go on could be autopsied, you could be critiqued more than ever, so the job is done more honorable than ever before because everybody thinks they can do it better than you can, although there's not exactly a line of people that do it. and there you are. today even your physical safety's sometimes even less important than making sure you're not accused of wrongdoing, you're not caught in a video. but there the nations police are and they do more good an hour in the country than you'd ever believe. that's why i think you'll see them in intensity because they know each other's work. obviously there are some

screwballs in their group and all other groups. we've got to get rid of those people. but they do more for racial justice and criminal justice in an hour than all the bloggers put together who -- you know, we need them, we need their critiques, but please understand critiquing is not acting and acting comes with a lot of problems because you can always be exposed to criticism and make mistakes. so it will be interesting to see how this will play out. in terms of whether this is part of a larger group because there are -- this is not just one group. be advised there are many, many different groups threatening federal law enforcement every day, threatening judges every day, threatening others every day who are trying to do the people's business here. >> policing just one of those lines of work where the view is vastly different from inside the arena as it is from the seats. and, eugene, thank you. that brings us to chuck todd, our political director and moderator of "meet the press" getting ready for this gop convention. chuck, that phrase, the view is

different from inside the arena than it is for the paying customers in the seats, is also true about politics and the presidency. and here we have this massive backdrop of we're about to see the president briefing room what the job often means, what the job too often entails. >> brian, let me just go through the president's schedule over the last seven days. meeting with law enforcement on monday. tuesday goes to dallas to honor five slain police officers. wednesday convenes a meeting of law enforcement and black lives matter activists. thursday does a town hall on sort of race in america. friday, no law enforcement issues, but makes remarks after the tragedy in nice. and then, oh, by the way, a coup in turkey. the point is, that's one week of the presidency. that is the job that donald trump and hillary clinton are running for. and i do think that the last five weeks, brian, of all of

this, of what the american public has experienced and the hits on american psyche that is, this lack of it feels as if stuff's spinning out of control, right? whether it's domestically with the issue between african-americans and police. now we have a right wing militia group perhaps involved in this. then we have the issue of isis. instability in the middle east. there is just this and that, that unnerving feeling that the public who is also watching all of this and soaking it all in, that's something these candidates, that's something both these conventions nth next two weeks are going to have to address. they can't pretend this isn't happening. they can't have their party in the arena while the american public is feeling this as they're trying to decide if one of these people is ready to be commander in chief. >> as you point out it's the tempo of it, chuck.

it is something else in a vacuum would be monumental and earth shaking every day. and just this past weekend from the attack in nice and the tragedy there to timult in turkey that still goes on at this hour. >> that's the part -- look, that's why i think voters will be sitting here. you can't ever overreact as president. sometimes you worry about underreacting, finding that spot because on one hand you happen to be a spokesman. on one hand you want to calm people's nerves down. you got to sort of make them sort of reassure them. and at the same time you need to make some tough decisions. the turkey situation as we recall, i mean, could have come to a point whose side -- tough situation and the president might have had to decide whose side do you take in that? and it's all coming at you all at the same time. that's why i thought it was important to just look at the last seven days of this

president's schedule to consider who do you imagine handling these seven days, donald trump, hillary clinton? or do you want somebody else? >> then we turn your question back around to you. how do you think the gop convention will reflect the scope of our world in the last seven days? >> well, we've already heard that they do plan to do some sort of tribute to the baton rouge officers tomorrow. and i think in general i think tomorrow's theme already was supposed to be security in some form. i think you're going to hear the phrase law and order a lot. you've already been hearing it from donald trump. i think you will see especially tomorrow that theme. and i wouldn't be surprised if it's reflected in donald trump's acceptance speech on thursday. you heard a little bit of where he went on saturday. and i think that he believes this issue of insecurity out there could, and i think people around him believe, that voters may be looking for the

quote/unquote, strength, the strong man. and i think he is going to try to make that pitch on himself on thursday. >> does it feel like there's a giant preoccupation prior to the start of the gop convention? you're there on the ground in cleveland. >> not yet. but don't forget it hasn't started yet. and there's, you know, right now it's -- it doesn't have that feel of a split screen feeling where, you know, people are wondering what is happening, what's the latest there. not yet. but i think part of that is is not everybody's here. >> absolutely. chuck todd in cleveland, ohio. again, kind of by necessity will be the focus of much more of the days to come than it is today. recapping the tragedy in baton rouge, louisiana. remembering that we have one officer fighting for his life. we have three dead, three wounded. that critical officer. and a suspect who has been

killed by police. however, as we noted, we just saw this press briefing from all of the top law enforcement officials in louisiana certainly that area of louisiana. we noted some plural language when they were assuring people there was no active shooter situation in baton rouge. they still to paraphrase talked about the people behind this. easily understandable if the information we are getting from pete williams and others is right, that there is a tie of some sort to a group here. all we know about the suspect is this name. we have gavin long, kansas city, missouri, born 1987. and that's all we've got at this hour. we have been repeating the now

familiar video from this airline highway in baton rouge, which really is a major route, kind of bisecting though not neatly north to south the two halves of baton rouge. but well known to everybody there. sarah dallof joins me mow from baton rouge. i assume you and other members of our team have arrived and gotten to the camera location and have seen this city under lockdown? >> that's exactly right, brian. even getting to our location where we are is difficult. you have numerous roadblocks when you head down to airline highway in baton rouge. and once you arrive, you have checkpoints. you're seeing armed officers, armed with long guns. they are patrolling the streets. we've seen at least one vehicle stopped and the occupants of that vehicle ordered out of

their car so law enforcement can clear it. you're also seeing helicopters circle overhead. and a number of police agencies here responding. you heard in that press conference a short time ago that it's both state, local and federal authorities, that is also what we're seeing as far as law enforcement presence here on the ground. it's still a very active scene. you can see those blue flashing lights behind me. also a very subdued scene, very quiet here on scene as officers go about their duties investigating the deaths of three of their colleagues, three police officers killed earlier today. and, brian, as we heard one of those officers who was injured still fighting for his life. >> so, sarah, you see those twin dynamics you just mentioned, number one, they don't trust anybody in the area. and number two, it still looks like a more robust response than a cold crime scene, than a crime scene that's over because of the nature of this, i guess, they're still fanning out and looking at every place and everybody.

>> very much so, brian. we saw in the beginning of this investigation we saw a lot of different information coming down that officers and law enforcement still trying to sort through. remember at one point east baton rouge sheriff's office says they were looking for potentially two more people. now law enforcement has come out and said they believe the shooter in this case is the suspect that was killed here on scene. so as they sort through this information they certainly aren't letting their guard down. they're patrolling around here in pairs. like you said, word right now is trust no one here on scene, protect yourself, protect your fellow law enforcement officers as you begin this difficult investigation that, you know, not only is work for people right now, but it is -- carries a piece of their heart. these are the men and women that they patrol with every day. and we've seen now in dallas, we've seen now in baton rouge how quickly things can change and what a volatile and

dangerous situation a call can become in a mere instant. >> sarah, thank you. thank you so much for making your way to the scene fast. mark claxson here with me. all these different jurisdictions, i'm trying to figure out the doors, the names and logos on the doors. in louisiana you have counties are parishes, you have the same kind of county sheriff system, a lot of other areas of the country have, you also have a police department in baton rouge that has been receiving kind of mutual aid assistance from the surrounding communities because they have been really preoccupied. >> sure. >> they've had protests to deal with, they've got this huge internal investigation into these police officers. >> yeah, it's interesting, along with all of the emotional baggage that these police officers have to endure and deal with over the past couple weeks, they have to also address the fact that they're working extended hours, extended