Baton Rouge Police say today they'll share more of what they've learned about the shooting at the Mall of Louisiana that killed a 17-year-old and wounded five others, including the names of suspects and victims.
In the meantime, Baton Rouge Police Chief Thomas Morse Jr. says having a cop stationed at the mall made a critical difference.
"We had a Baton Rouge police officer that is assigned to the mall, that was on scene, when the shots rang out and immediately responded and ran towards that gunfire," said Morse. "Within minutes, we had dozens of law enforcement officials from all across the area responding to the scene."
Morse says there was also an East Baton Rouge Parish Sheriff's Office deputy in the parking lot who quickly responded to the danger.
Baton Rouge Mayor Sid Edwards said sometimes, it takes cops in the right place at the right time to keep an unstoppable tragedy from becoming worse.
"You know, we could have all the law enforcement in the world sometimes, every social program, I mean, anything at our disposal, but if a human being decides they're going to do a nefarious act like that, that's when we go into react mode," Edwards said. "Our reaction was superb."
