Police think 2 Louisiana slayings likely racially motivated

BATON ROUGE, La. – The slayings of two black men in Baton Rouge last week were likely racially motivated, police said Sunday, and a suspect — a 23-year-old white man — was in custody. In both shootings the gunman fired from his car then walked up to the victims as they were lying on the ground and fired again multiple times.

The suspect, Kenneth Gleason, was being held on drug charges. Authorities did not yet have enough evidence to charge him with murder, but the investigation was ongoing, Baton Rouge Sgt. L'Jean Mckneely told The Associated Press.

"The victims were ... ambushed," Mckneely said. "There is a strong possibility that it could be racially motivated."

Mckneely said shell casings from the shootings linked the two slayings, and a car belonging to Gleason fit the description of the vehicle used in the killings. He said authorities had collected other circumstantial evidence but he wouldn't say what it was.

Neither victim had any prior relationship with Gleason. It wasn't immediately clear if Gleason had an attorney or when his first court appearance would be.

The shootings happened about five miles from each other. The first occurred Tuesday night when 59-year-old Bruce Cofield, who was homeless, was shot to death. The second happened Thursday night when 49-year-old Donald Smart was gunned down while walking to his job as a dishwasher at a cafe popular with Louisiana State University students, Mckneely said.

Smart's aunt, Mary Smart, said she was still dealing with the shock of her nephew's death.

"I'm feeling down and depressed. My nephew, I love him, and he was on his way to work and that makes it so sad," she said in a telephone interview Sunday. "He was always smiling and hugging everybody. A lot of people knew him."

Smart had a son and two daughters, she said.

She declined to comment on police allegations that her nephew might have been shot because of the color of his skin.

"I cannot say," she said. "Only God knows."

No one answered the door at Gleason's house in a quiet neighborhood of mostly ranch-style homes with well-kept lawns, located about 10 miles from the sites of the shootings.

"He looks like any clean-cut American kid," said neighbor Nancy Reynolds, who said she didn't know Gleason or his family. She said it was "hard to believe this sort of thing is still happening."

Gleason didn't appear to have any active social media profiles, and two of his maternal aunts declined to comment when reached by phone by the AP. Messages left at his parents' house and at another aunt's house were not returned.

East Baton Rouge District Attorney Hillar Moore said a judge could issue a ruling on bond for Gleason later Sunday. Moore wouldn't comment on what led investigators to him.

"We're actively investigating right now," Moore said.

Detectives searched Gleason's home on Saturday and found 9 grams of marijuana and vials of human growth hormone at his house, according to a police document. After Gleason was read his Miranda rights, he claimed ownership of the drugs, the document said.

Louisiana's capital, a city of 229,000, is known for its championship college football team and its political scene. A year ago, racial tensions roiled the city when a black man was shot to death by white police officers outside of a convenience store. About two weeks later, a black gunman targeted police in an ambush, killing three officers before he was shot to death. The city is about 55 percent black and 40 percent white.

Smart consistently showed up for his overnight shift as a dishwasher at Louie's Cafe in a spotless white T-shirt and bright white Nike tennis shoes, The Advocate newspaper reported.

"I've seen 26 years of folks washing dishes in a busy diner and this guy is untouchable," Louie's general manager, Fred Simonson, was quoted as saying. "When you have an employee like Donald, he's the type of person who's going to make the person next to him better."

___

Associated Press writers Jacob Jordan in Atlanta and Gillian Flaccus in Portland, OR, contributed to this report.