Ryan Phillippe sniper series Shooter postponed again after Baton Rouge police shooting

Shooter will now air in the autumn 'as a show of respect and to honour the fallen officers'

Ryan Phillippe’s new TV series Shooter has been pushed back again following yet more tragic police shootings.

US Network has delayed the premiere of the show, about a former military sniper who returns to work amid a plot to kill the president, in respect to the three policemen killed in Baton Rouge, Los Angeles over the weekend.

Shooter was originally scheduled to air on 19 July but was postponed until 26 July “as a show of respect and to honour the fallen officers” after five were fatally shot during a Black Lives Matter protest earlier this month. The march had been organised in response to the deaths of two black men, Alton Sterling and Philando Castile, at the hands of police.

Ten-part series Shooter will now be held back until autumn, a representative said. It is based on Stephen Hunter’s bestselling novel Point of Impact, which became a film starring Mark Wahlberg in 2007, and follows Phillippe’s exiled marksman Bob Lee Swagger as he is coaxed back to undercover policing by his former commanding officer (Omar Epps) to save the president from assassinate, only to end up wrongly accused of a crime.

Shooter reportedly opens with the sound of a gunshot followed by a montage of real life photos of gun violence. USA Network has released a statement confirming that the premiere has been rescheduled “in light of recent tragic events and out of respect for the victims, their families and our viewers”.

Past shows to be rescheduled after life tragically imitated art include The Last Ship following the Orlando gay club shooting, Mr Robot after two news reporters were shot on live TV and NCIS: Los Angeles in the wake of the Paris terror attacks.

Most recently, Idris Elba’s new film Bastille Day was pulled from French cinemas following the Nice attack that left 84 people dead last Thursday. The movie stars Elba as an ex-CIA agent who attempts to stop a terror attack in Paris.