A weekend burglary of a Baton Rouge pawnshop was part of larger plot to kill police officers, the Baton Rouge Police Department announced Tuesday. Four suspects were reportedly involved in the stealing of eight guns from Cash America Pawn early Saturday morning. Three of the suspects were caught; one 17-year-old suspect told police that they stole the guns with the intention of shooting police. Police officials said they believed the threat to be a credible one.
Two of the other suspects, one of whom is 13 years old, were arrested according to police; the fourth suspect is still at large. “Police said they increased their presence in the city following the shooting death of Alton Sterling last week due to the ‘very real and viable threats to law enforcement’ in the area,” ABC News reports. “The aggressive police response, which showed police in riot gear clearing crowds, was also due in part to the information obtained after the burglary, said East Baton Rouge Sheriff Sid Gatreaux.”
