*Administration of Barack Obama, 2016 *

**Statement on the Shooting of Law Enforcement Officers in Baton Rouge, Louisiana **

*July 17, 2016 *

I condemn, in the strongest sense of the word, the attack on law enforcement in Baton Rouge. For the second time in 2 weeks, police officers who put their lives on the line for ours every day were doing their job when they were killed in a cowardly and reprehensible assault. These are attacks on public servants, on the rule of law, and on civilized society, and they have to stop.

I've offered my full support, and the full support of the Federal Government, to Governor Edwards, Mayor Holden, the Sheriff's Office, and the Baton Rouge Police Department. And make no mistake: Justice will be done.

We may not yet know the motives for this attack, but I want to be clear: there is no justification for violence against law enforcement. None. These attacks are the work of cowards who speak for no one. They right no wrongs. They advance no causes. The officers in Baton Rouge, the officers in Dallas, they were our fellow Americans, part of our community, part of our country, with people who loved and needed them, and who need us now—all of us—to be at our best.

Today, on the Lord's day, all of us stand united in prayer with the people of Baton Rouge, with the police officers who've been wounded, and with the grieving families of the fallen. May God bless them all.

NOTE: The statement referred to Officer Matthew Gerald and Corporal Montrell Jackson, Baton Rouge Police Department, and Deputy Brad Garafola, East Baton Rouge Sheriff's Office, who were killed in the shootings in Baton Rouge, LA; and Deputies Bruce Simmons and Nicholas Tullier, East Baton Rouge Sheriff's Office, and Officer Brad Montgomery, Baton Rouge Police Department, who were injured in the Baton Rouge shootings.

*Categories:* Statements by the President : Baton Rouge, Louisiana, shootings of law enforcement officers*.*

*Names:* Edwards, John Bel; Garafola, Brad; Gerald, Matthew; Holden, Melvin L. "Kip"; Jackson, Montrell; Montgomery, Brad; Simmons, Bruce; Tullier, Nicholas*.*

*Subjects:* Law enforcement and crime : Law enforcement officers, service and dedication; Louisiana : Baton Rouge :: Shootings of law enforcement officers; Louisiana : Governor.

*DCPD Number:* DCPD201600472.