Slain cop wrote touching Facebook post before death

Just days before he was shot and killed, a Baton Rouge police officer posted an emotional Facebook message saying he was “physically and emotionally” tired and expressing how difficult it was to be both a police officer and a black man, a friend has said.

“I swear to God I love this city but I wonder if this city loves me,” Montrell Jackson wrote.

Friends and family of Jackson (32) were mourning the veteran of the police force that relatives described as a “gentle giant” and a “protector” after he and another two law enforcement officers were shot and killed Sunday morning by a gunman.

The other two officers who were killed have been identified by the US media as Matthew Gerald (41) and Brad Garafola (24). Gerald had been with the department less than a year.

The suspect who shot three police officers dead in Baton Rouge on Sunday was a Marine veteran who served in Iraq.

Gavin Eugene Long, a 29-year-old African American, identified as the shooter by the US media, was shot dead by the Louisiana state police.

Long, who was based in Kansas City — more than 1,100 km north of Baton Rouge — had registered websites where he used the name “Cosmo Setepenra”.

A Kansas court document showed that Long successfully applied to have his name legally cha-nged to Cosmo Ausar Sete-penra.

Online profiles of Setepenra, including on professional networking service LinkedIn and in an author biography for a book sold on Amazon, matched Long’s military record.

On one website, he described himself as a “Freedom Strategist, Mental Game Coach, Nutritionist, Author and Spiritual Advisor.”

Setepenra’s Twitter feed said he had travelled to Dallas, and he posted videos of himself traveling in the Texas city.

Many of the posts on Setepenra’s Twitter feed targeted white people.

After the Dallas shooting, a July 8 post read: “The Shooter was NOT WHITE, He was one of us! # My religion is Justice @tariqnasheed@ZoWilliams@thecoreyholcomb.”

“Have u ever seen white people march for the things they needed ” read a July 11 post.

On July 13, he wrote: “Violence is not THE answer (its a answer), but at what point do you stand up so that your people dont become the Native Americans...EXTINCT ”

In an ominous tweet posted just minutes after midnight on Sunday, he wrote: “Just bc you wake up every morning doesn’t mean that you’re living. And just bc you shed your physical body doesn’t mean that you’re dead.”

On a YouTube page linked to the same online profile, with the handle “I Am Cosmo,” he posted videos discussing police brutality.

In one said to have been filmed in Dallas, he gave advice on “protesting, oppression and how to deal with bullies.”

Some media reports linked Long to anti-government groups such as the New Freedom Group and the Sovereign Citizens.

Long’s birthday was on Sunday, the day he chose to kill the police officers.

Baton Rouge itself has been scarred by high racial tensions and numerous protests against police brutality since the death earlier oin Jule of Alton Sterling, a black man shot at point-blank range by the police.