Incidents like this are one of the reasons we now have SWAT teams and police snipers.
When pictures of Essex were printed in the newspapers afterwards, a local businessman came forward and said Essex fit the description of one of two ‘well-dressed’ men who were seen acting suspiciously in the lobby of a 16-story high rise he owned in downtown New Orleans, on the day a fire broke out on the 15th floor, which killed six people. That happened just five weeks before the HoJo shooting and arson attacks. Unfortunately the arsonist of the Rault Building was never caught.
Interestingly, the local businessman—Joseph Rault, Jr.—was one of the prominent local businessmen who helped fund New Orleans DA Jim Garrison’s 1967 investigation into the JFK killing. Was the fire payback, and did they use another Manchurian Candidate to do it, before having him carry out the HoJo attack? Essex was prominently described as being associated with the Black Panthers, and it is known he deliberately targeted cops. Knowing there was an ongoing campaign to disrupt/discredit various leftist organizations under the ‘Cointelpro’ program back then, one wonders if this whole attack wasn’t part of this effort. I wouldn’t put it past them.