Baton Rouge Shooter Attended Clark Atlanta University

There's an Atlanta connection to Sunday morning's Baton Rouge, Louisiana, shooting, which left three police officers dead and others wounded.

Gavin Long, who police have identified as the shooter, attended Clark Atlanta University in 2012-13, according to the school.

"Records indicate that suspected shooter Gavin Eugene Long was briefly enrolled in Clark Atlanta University during the 2012-13 academic year," according to a statement from the school. "The university categorically denounces this heinous act as it transgresses the institution’s core values and the very underpinnings of our institutional mission.

"Our prayers are with the families and communities in Baton Rouge—and Dallas—who have suffered tremendous loss, as well as those who were seriously injured. We also continue to grieve for the families of Alton Sterling in Baton Rouge, Philando Castile in Minneapolis, and all who have suffered because of violence."

In interviews with the Associated Press and the New York Times, officials with the Louisiana State Police said that preliminary investigations showed that Long ambushed the police officers. An official told NBC News the gunman did not make the 911 call to "lure" the police officers to the area of Old Airline Highway. The person who called 911 is not believed to be an accomplice or an attacker.

The three officers killed in the shooting were identified as 32-year-old Montrell Jackson and 41-year-old Matthew Gerald, both from the Baton Rouge Police Department, and 45-year-old Brad Garafola, of the East Baton Rouge Sheriff's Office. A fourth officer with the sheriff's department, Nicholas Tuller, 41, remains in critical condition.

Long, 29, of Kansas City, Missouri, served in the military and was deployed to Iraq for less than a year between 2008 and 2009. He served in the military for five years as a data network specialist. The shooting reportedly took place on Long's 29th birthday. CBS News reported Long's date of birth as July 17, 1987.

Clark Atlanta is part of the Atlanta University Center, a collection of major African-American schools and universities in southwest Atlanta's Cascade community. Morehouse College and Spelman College are also part of the center.

Long's academic records released by Clark Atlanta show that his GPA was 2.87, and that he took courses in biology, algebra, Spanish, African-centered psychology, world literature and pre-calculus.

The shooting comes in the wake of heightened tension between police and the community in Baton Rouge since the fatal shooting of Alton Sterling that has prompted days of protests along the same highway where the officers were shot.

See also:

Baton Rouge Police Shooting Latest: Gunman Likely 'Ambushed' Police; Slain Officers Identified

Image Credit: Gillian R. Triche via Twitter