Police: Hundreds of arrests made, dozens of illegal firearms seized so far in 2019
BATON ROUGE - Local officials and family members of some of those killed by Baton Rouge violence spoke at a news conference Friday calling for more help from the community in the fight against crime.
The conference comes after another spike in violence that came after a relatively calm start to the year, including a deadly shooting on I-110 Tuesday.
During the conference, police said local law enforcement has made 272 drug and violence-related arrests since they focused efforts on targeting certain high-crime areas in December. In those arrests, a variety of drugs have been seized along with 46 firearms. Among those were multiple assault rifles, including a modified AK-47.
Though the operations have been largely successful, officials said the seizures highlight the dangers officers are facing on a daily basis.
"You have a uniform patrol guy armed with just a Glock 17, he's gonna have to deal with a guy who gets out of a car with an AK-47," Deputy Chief Robert McGarner said. "Who do you think is going to win that battle?"
You can watch the full news conference below.