Nonlife threatening. Theres an unnamed officer who is in Critical Condition in a local hospital. He is continuing his fight. The situation here began at 8 40 a. M. Local time with a 911 call alerting authorities to a man walking down the street with a long gun that turned out to be an ar semiautomatic rifle. He was in black and a mask and ready to do battle. Thats why he was here. Boris sanchez has the details of what brought these three officers down. Boris . Reporter good morning, chris. To give our viewers an idea, were just down street from you, about a mile away from Baton Rouge Police headquarters. This Convenience Store behind me is where all of this unfolded yesterday, where it started really. Police chased the suspect down through several businesses in this area, bravely going after them, even as he targeted them. You see all these cameras here, but the scene has really clear kd up. Theres no indication that any of this happened less than 24 hours ago. Were told the investigation is still ongoing though. Just yesterday officials interviewed two people for several hours in relation to this case. There were no charges filed. They were let go. Thats in line with what sources are telling cnn. The suspect was here in baton rouge with more than one person, but its unclear just how much the people that he was with knew about this plot that he had hatched, a plot that has rattled this community and shaken Law Enforcement across the country. [ gunfire ] officer down shots fired officer down got a city offer down. Reporter three officers ambushed and gunned down in baton rouge sunday morning with three other officers wounded. At 8 40 a. M. Officers spotting a man dressed in black wearing a mask and holding an ar15 style semiautomatic rifle near a Convenience Store. A Law Enforcement source says the killer, 29yearold gavin eugene long, a former marine, was intentionally trying to lure in police. Im hit. Left arm. Reporter two minutes later, gunshots rang out. The killer outgunning the officers at the scene. In the hail of bullets, three of them lost their lives. 41yearold matthew gerald, 32yearold Montrell Jackson, and 45yearold matt garafala. We never thought this could have happened in baton rouge, but it has. Reporter the attack coming just ten days after five officers were killed in the dallas ambush by another former military veteran, 25yearold micah johnson, gunning down officers protecting a peaceful protest to the Police Killings of alton sterling and philando ca castile. We want prayers from around the country. Were mourning just like dallas. My two brothers right here, i was in the hospital with them. I saw first hand the grief on their face as they were trying to talk to the families. This has got to stop. Reporter Law Enforcement sources tell cnn that the baton rouge killer rented a car from his hometown in kansas city, stopping in dallas, where he shot this video on his cell phone before carrying out the attack. The fiveyear veteran was discharged as a sergeant and spent about six months in iraq. He tweeted about the dallas killer, calling him, quote, one of us. And then a Youtube Video urging viewers you got to fight back. Reporter tensions high in baton rouge since Alton Sterlings death nearly two weeks ago. Sterlings aunt pleading for peace. These people call these families, they tell them that their daddies and mamas not coming home no more. I know how they feel because i got the same phone call. Stop this killing. Stop this killing. Reporter one of the slain baton rouge officers posting this plea on facebook after the dallas ambush. Quote, please dont let hate infect your heart. Montrell jackson wrote. If you see me or need a hug or want to say a prayer, i got you. President obama yet again forced to address a mass killing. We need to temper our words and open our hearts, all of us. Until we come together and this madness continues, we will surely perish as a people. Reporter chris, were also getting an update on that deputy in Critical Condition. Nicolas tullier, a 41yearold, who spent 18 years serving for the baton rouge sheriffs office, were told hes clinging to life. Hes fighting for his life right now. Officials yesterday asking the community to send their thoughts and prayers to his family and the families of all the officers affected in this attack, chris. Absolutely. Boris, thank you. Well check back with you in a little bit. Theres another officer, a third, who is in Critical Condition as well. We have not gotten his name yet. When we do, well release it to you as well. And i do direct you to that facebook entry from Montrell Jackson. Such a contrast. As a Police Officer and africanamerican, he experienced these issues were talking about in this country, but he came to such a different conclusion than the murderer. He saw all the problems, but he also saw Something Else in humanity, which is hope to be better. That is not the conclusion that the murderer came to, who is now dead as well. Lets talk about what baton rouge means here in this community and around the country. We have representative garrett graves. He is the congressman in this district here. I want to bring back david clinger, former Police Officer and professor who studies these issues of policing and the author of into the kill zone, which represents a lot of that reporting that youve done on it. Gentlemen, thank you both. Congressman, i havent met you before, and im sorry that its on this occasion. Thank you. What is the message to the community about how you come together after something thats so divisive . Look, we cant allow the alton sterling shooting or the shooting of the officers to pass without us extracting Lessons Learned here. To make sure that we do establish more robust dialogue among our community members, that we do talk about Lessons Learned, that we do talk about how to bridge the divide and address some of the underlying problems. I think the alton sterling shooting to a large degree served as a catalyst for some of these frustrations that were sort of under the radar to come out and manifest. Importantly h the shooter in this case, it was very clear to us early on, this is not our community. This doesnt represent us. Hes not even from here. No, and very early on yesterday when we found out about this, we began saying that. This guy is not from here. This is not homegrown. It ended up being he is from out of town. You saw a marked shift in the reaction of the Community Last weekend when folks began coming in from out of town and began trying to change the narrative. The protest went from over by the shooting miles away, they brought it here to the police, trying to force confrontation. Its just not the type of peaceful protest we were having prior. So you wind up having a situation where the president comes out and says killing of Police Officers is wrong, full stop. Now, there is a difference in these two types of deaths. When a cop kills a citizen, use of force may be excessive, has to be investigated. You dont need that when you have cops murdered. There is no need for an investigation. Its an absolute wrong. Except, people keep looking as if theres some kind of an equation between these two. Theres absolutely not. So how do you deal with that . First of all, in terms of the investigation, there has to be a thorough investigation of the murder because there may be accomplices. True, other connections. We know that investigation is ongoing. But in terms of whether it was a rightful, justified use of force, theres no question when a cop is killed. Absolutely. And its very important that people understand when a Police Officer uses deadly force, that is investigated very thoroughly so that people have confidence. One of the things that we need to do better in american Law Enforcement is make sure that we give all the information that we can about an investigation as it proceeds. But as you noted, murder of a Police Officer has absolutely nothing to do with use of force. There should never be any titfortat. Theres a system in place in the United States for investigating the use of deadly force by the police. If a Police Officer, such as the gentleman and i use that term loosely in South Carolina who gunned down that suspect who was jogging away, there needs to be an investigation. There needs to be a prosecution. He has his day in court. Thats the way we do it in the United States. And if people think they can take the law into their own hands, were in for a very, very rough ride. Now, the murderer here of these police was not from here. He was from kansas city. The cops tracked him, taking a rental car to the site of dallas, making these videos, doing all the other things he did. But you do have issues in your community with policing that go far beyond what happened with alton sterling. Obviously his death is something that is going to be a flash point. But there are issues. So where is the Leadership Perspective on this . What do you do to get better . Look, there were two things that i think when you look at the alton sterling video you walk away with. Number one, if he would have complied, this wouldnt have happened. Number two, if the officers tasered, if they used nonlethal weapons to subdue the suspect, it wouldnt have happened. We got together with the democratic congressman who represents this areas, introduced legislation providing Additional Research and Development Funds for nonlethal weapons, giving them additional tools. If the taser had worked, i think this would have been a very different situation. The other thing thats important is what do we do to help provide better leadership in the community for simple compliance with the officers. What is the source of this distrust, this frustration among Law Enforcement and some members of our community that resulted in this noncompliance with the officers direction. Couple questions. After an incident like this, theyre going to say they need more force. They need to have ar weapons. They cant be outgunned by one maniac every time. Theres also going to be on the flipside saying you need Different Levels of accountability. Where are the body cameras . Where are the dashboard cameras . In this case, we have body cameras. We have dash cameras. So thats something we have adjusted to in this community. We know thats an open question in the case with alton sterling, about where the body cameras were and they didnt malfunction simultaneously right at the moment you needed them most. Heres the thing. If youre in a physical altercation with someone, that body cam, wherever it is mounted, is going to get shifted. So my understanding is that thats what happened. The body cam basically didnt malfunction as much as it got moved away. But theres still going to be an audio reporting. If you listen very carefully to the audio recording that was on the one cell phone that basically was taken to where the shooting went down, you hear the officers giving orders. You hear the officer say hes going for a gun. So theres a lot of information that we have. Theres more that we can have. One of the things that drove me nuts was someone immediately saying, multiple people, its got to be a coverup because the body cams arent going to malfunction. They didnt malfunction, from my understanding. They simply got knocked askew. But you get the frustration. Absolutely. One other quick i want you to take quickly. There is a call to have independent review of these cases when they come up. And not just by the attorney general of the state but by some outside entity so theres no issue of compromise of conflict. Do you buy into that idea . In this case, absolutely. When you have a situation like this that draws as much emotion, absolutely. I think its the right thing to do. I understand the Baton Rouge Police department, like many of the area Police Departments, is working in agreement with the department of justice to do just that. My attitude is i want to have the best investigators investigate officerinvolved shootings. If the best investigators are the detectives who work for a particular police agency, then they should go ahead and do it. But there are a variety of different mechanisms where youll have teams come in from the outside to various smaller agencies to do the investigation. No problem with that as long as the people who are doing the investigations are true experts. Representative graves, thank you very much. Let us know how we can help this community heal. Thank you. Appreciate it. Do we have Alisyn Camerota in cleveland . Yes, you do. That is good news. I made it back. I see you. I hear you. It is good to have you despite the technical gremlins. I know. I knew youd make it through. I plugged whatever was unplugged back in. Chris, well be back with you. Theres a lot of excitement here in cleveland. Of course, theres anxiety as well as the Republican National convention gets off to a start because of those Police Killings that chris has been covering. So the Cleveland Police union, they saw a situation that worried them. They asked the governor for a temporary suspension of ohios open carry gun laws. But thats not what happened. Cnns ryan young is live in downtown cleveland along the protest route. Tell us what has happened, ryan. Reporter well, good morning, alisyn. Were getting hit hard by rain at this point. Behind us was a sign that showed basically the barricade where marchers could show up. This is where they can march toward downtown cleveland, about a mile away. You talk about that open carry. The governor here says he couldnt suspend it. Thats not his powers as governor. So there was something he could not do in terms of suspending that open carry law. No officers are worried about it. Two officers are behind us watching this route. We saw a protest just yesterday as people were marching up and down the street. You could understand with this current climate, officers are worried about the idea of people walking with guns, but that is the law here in this state, and theyre going to have to deal with that. We saw officers surrounding these people yesterday. They talked about the idea of all the measures they put in place to keep people safe over the next few days. Of course, there was some anxiety to make sure that the things we put in place were actually going to work the way we planned them. We always know with an operation this big, there are going to be some adjustments. Our plan is made so that we can adjust on the fly. Weve made some tweaks here and there. Im sure throughout the week well make adjustments also. Reporter so theres always an adjustment, including weather. You have rain here. Will protesters show up in force like we saw yesterday . Will they show up today with the weather the way it is . You know the city of cleveland has been provided about 49 million to pay for overtime and all the extra officers that are coming this way. As someone whos covered not only a super bowl but ncaa basketball, i can tell you the increased security is something ive never seen before. When youre going through cleveland, all the fences, its something thats quite different. They seem to be ready for whatever is coming next. Alisyn . Ryan, be careful out there. Im going to get you an umbrella, even though its a prohibited item. Thanks so much for that reporting. Well, the Gop Convention gets under way in just a few hours from now. Theres a new cnn orc poll. It reveals most Republican Voters believe the party will eventually unite behind donald trump. 16 say the party is united right now. 52 say it will happen. 28 say it will not happen. Well, Donald Trumps wife melania will headline the first night of this convention in primetime tonight. Cnns Phil Mattingly is inside the quicken loans arena with a preview. Hi, phil. Reporter hey, alisyn. Well, you talk to republican officials in the leadup to this fourday gop experience, and there are a lot of goals. Unity, as you just noted, is top on the list. Showcasing donald trump and his brand new running mate mike pence. One of the key components of the next four days, especially today in cleveland, security and the need for it, both at home and abroad. Our world is spinning out of control. Our countrys spinning out of control. Thats what i think about. And ill stop that. Reporter donald trump pledging strength ahead of the first day of the Republican National convention. Obamas weak. Hillarys weak. And part of it is that, a big part of it. We need law and order. Reporter weeks of national and International Turmoil heavily impacting todays events. Coincidentally themed, make america safe again. Trump slamming president obamas response to sundays killing of three officers in baton rouge, saying the president doesnt have a clue. Tweeting that the country is, quote a divided crime scene and it will only get worse. As all eyes are on the presumptive gop nominee to see if hes ready to pivot to a more president ial tone. Its not a change of a pivot. What it is is a showing of the rest of the person. That hasnt been done in this campaign. The donald trump that i see on a daily basis is more than just a donald trump sitting out there in campaign rallies. Reporter the campaign touting a different type of convention, one featuring fewer politicians and more voices with a personal connecti