Arkansas funeral planned for gunman in Baton Rouge police ambush

(Reuters) – The former U.S. Marine who killed three policemen in an ambush in Baton Rouge, Louisiana, this month before he was fatally shot by police will be buried near his mother’s home town in Arkansas, a funeral home owner said on Tuesday.

No date has been set for the funeral of Gavin Long, an Iraqi war veteran who identified himself as a member of an African-American offshoot of an anti-government movement.

Long, 29 and African-American, fatally shot two Baton Rouge Police Department officers and one sheriff’s deputy in a racially charged assault. His ambush followed an attack on police in Dallas that left five officers dead.

It also came amid days of unrest over the police killings of two black men under questionable circumstances earlier this month – Alton Sterling, 37, in Baton Rouge on July 5, and Philando Castile, 32, near St. Paul, Minnesota, on July 6.

Long, who had lived in Missouri, will be buried in West Helena, Arkansas, where members of his mother’s family are buried.

Beulah Kincaid, owner of Kincaid Funeral Services, said that at first she did not recognize Long’s name, but when she found out she still decided to go ahead with the funeral because it was her professional obligation.

“My heart goes out to all the victims,” Kincaid said.

Long’s body has not yet arrived in Arkansas, she added.

(Reporting by Jon Herskovitz; Editing by Marguerita Choy)