The head of the New York Police Department says the country and the police profession are “in uncharted waters.”

Commissioner William Bratton spoke to “CBS Evening News” on Sunday evening, after three law enforcement officers in Baton Rouge, Louisiana, were shot to death and three others wounded by a gunman.

Bratton said the police’s dual obligation to protect the public as well as themselves put law enforcement in “uncharted waters here at this particular point in time in American policing.”

He also said it’s clear police face a lack of trust in minority communities, and there has to be a way to find common ground.

(AP)