WASHINGTON, D. C. – Attorney General Karl A. Racine today issued the following statement on this morning’s shootings in Baton Rouge, La., which left three police officers dead and three more injured.

“I am profoundly saddened and disturbed by the shooting of police officers in Baton Rouge, Louisiana. While the motive for these killings remains unclear, there is no justification for taking the lives of police officers. Whether in Dallas, Baton Rouge, or here in the District of Columbia, where we have a diverse police force, killings like these serve no one -- and they diminish us all.”

“We are a nation of laws. The founders of our country fought to establish the rule of law. Our civil rights leaders fought to ensure that the law would protect us all equally. Their fights are now ours, and we must wage them with peace.”

“‘Darkness cannot drive out darkness; only light can do that,’ Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. reminded us. And, he added, ‘Hate cannot drive out hate; only love can do that.’”

“As residents of Washington, we owe it to our community to speak with each other, to pray with each other, to embrace and to comfort each other, and together to bring about the future we all deserve.”