Hours after Gavin Long was fatally shot by police after he killed two police officers and a sheriff’s deputy in Baton Rouge, Louisiana, a picture began to emerge of him online as a pseudo-lifestyle coach who branded himself on multiple social media platforms as an “alpha” who taught others how to be what he called an “Alpha Preneur.”
CBS News reported that Long rented a white Chevy in his hometown of Kansas City, Missouri last Tuesday and drove to Baton Rouge. Early Sunday morning, he attacked police there with an AR-15-style semi-automatic rifle, officials told CNN.
Officials have said Long has no known connections to extremist groups, but other potential aliases were under investigation. Here’s what we know about him so far:
He used the alias ‘Cosmo Setepenra’ online
Long used the alias “Cosmo Setepenra” and tweeted under the handle @ConvosWithCosmo about topics like “heterosexual pride” and “alpha code.” He described himself as a “a Freedom Strategist, Mental Game Coach, Nutritionist, Author and Spiritual Advisor” on his website, covoswithcosmo.com.
Long left behind an extensive online record, including multiple videos on both YouTube and his Twitter account. He published a podcast on his website, too, on which he talked about a range of topics that included “things alpha males don’t do,” “checking your woman” and “the power of not giving a fuck.”
His last tweet before the shooting talked about shedding “your physical body”:
He referred to the Dallas shooting as “justice”
Long posted a video to his Twitter account that showed he was in Dallas after five police officers were shot and killed there earlier this month. He said in a YouTube video posted July 10 that protests “don’t work” against “bullies.”
“If you all want to keep protesting, do that. But for the the serious ones, the real ones, the alpha ones. We know what it’s gonna take,” Long said in the video. “It’s only fighting back or money. Revenue and blood.”
In a video that has since been removed from YouTube, Long reportedly defended Micah Johnson, the Dallas shooter.
“It’s justice,” Long said. “You know what I’m saying?”
He served in the Marines
A “military source” told CBS News that Long was given an honorable discharge in 2010 after reaching a “E-5,” or sergeant, ranking (Johnson, the Dallas shooter, was also a former Marine). CBS reported that Long received several medals throughout his career, including one for good behavior.
Long began his military service in 2005 and served in Iraq from June 2008 to January 2009, the Associated Press reported.
He identified as a sovereign citizen
Long declared himself a sovereign citizen and member of the “United Washitaw de Dugdahmoundyah Mu’ur Nation, Mid-West Washita Tribes” in paperwork he filed with the Jackson County, Missouri Recorder of Deeds in 2015.
The Southern Poverty Law Center describes the sovereign citizen movement as a “complex” movement with “antigovernment beliefs,” including that they are above laws and regulations such as paying taxes. A case against Long for unpaid taxes was dismissed last month in Kansas City.
Oren Segal, director of the Center on Extremism for the Anti-Defamation League, told AP that there was no information that organization was aware of that connected Long to an extremist group or movement. The ADL was still examining Long’s possible use of aliases.
Long referred to himself as Cosmo Ausar Setepenra in the documents in which he declared his sovereign citizenry, which were obtained by the Kansas City Star:
Gavin Long Sovereign Citizen by Ian Cummings on Scribd
The Southern Poverty Law Center describes the sovereign citizen movement as a “complex” movement with “antigovernment beliefs," including that they are above laws and regulations such as paying taxes. A case against Long for unpaid taxes was dismissed last month in Kansas City.
Which makes the AP’s story earlier today and it’s desperate attempt to make him not associated with an extremist group odd today the least.
What we are looking at, both here and in Europe, is basically a kind of mass psychosis - an epidemic of troubled young men “running amok.” The driver in Nice was cut from the same cloth - a warrior or jihadist only in his own mind.
This mass psychosis is being driven by the media and by the darker corners of the internet. Destroying ISIS militarily won’t end it, and neither will turning America into a police state.
As killing technology continues to advance, running amok will just get deadlier and deadlier. Thoroughly depressing.
Maybe the ADL might want to talk to the SPLC as should the AP, from June 15, 1999:
Washitaw Nation Comes Under Investigation
Income inequality does tend to make young men feel impotent. That’s why most sane societies try to find them productive work at a middle class standard of living…instead of outsourcing those jobs to third world countries where young men there become enslaved to low wages and unsafe working conditions.
He wanted to be a Bundy gang member.