Baton Rouge Suspect Was In Dallas Days After Ambush
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DALLAS (CBSDFW.COM) - The man identified as the suspect in Sunday's deadly attack on police in Baton Rouge stated in social media posts that he was in Dallas just days after the shootings there, and he urged his followers to "fight back."
Gavin Long posted a video on YouTube explaining that he made the decision to come to Dallas long before the attack on police that killed five officers and left more wounded.
"I'm in Dallas right now," said Long, who appeared to have shot the video in his hotel room, "on the streets, you know, on my book tour, giving knowledge out to my people. I had already decided that I was coming to Dallas before the police shootings even happened."
In his YouTube, Twitter and Amazon postings, Long identifies himself as Cosmo Setepenra and had filed paperwork in Kansas to legally change his name, the Kansas City Star reported. He described himself as a "freedom strategist, mental game coach, nutritionist, author and spiritual advisor."
"You gotta fight back," Long said in the YouTube video. "That's the only way a bully knows to quit. He doesn't know words."
On his Amazon page, Long stated that he completed an associate's degree at Central Texas College in Killeen before attending Clark Atlanta University. "After a year and a half... he had a spiritual revelation that resulted in him dropping out of college, selling his two cars, giving away all of his material possessions, packing two suitcases and journeying to Africa -- his ancestral homeland," the online biography says.
While in Dallas, Long went to a popular Wynnewood Village barber shop to hand out copies of his self-help book. Wearing a body camera, Long asked the customers inside, "Who's got a nephew, a son, a grandson, a granddaughter, a niece? It's for the youth. I want to give it to somebody young."
Long added that people need to stand up for what they believe. "For the serious ones, the real ones, the alpha ones, we know what it's going to take," Long said. "It's only fighting back or money. That's all they care about. Revenue and blood, revenue and blood, revenue and blood -- nothing else."
Six police officers were shot during the attack in Baton Rouge, and three of them died. Long was also killed after the shooting, which took place on his 29th birthday. Chief David Brown of the Dallas Police Department sent out a message of support and encouragement to the people of Louisiana on Twitter.
