BATON ROUGE - Longtime WAFB anchor and investigative reporter Paul Gates has died at the age of 69 after a long battle with Alzheimer’s disease.

Gates started his career at WAFB-TV in March 1977 as a reporter and continued his award-winning investigative reports, commonly known as “Paul Gates Investigates,” for more than 30 years.

Gates emotionally announced his retirement in 2011 on the 5 p.m. newscast, which he anchored for a decade.

On Twitter, WAFB’s 6 and 10 p.m. anchor Donna Britt said “He died peacefully from his long battle with Alzheimer’s and his family was all around him.”

News 2’s Pat Shingleton started his career at WAFB in 1977 and worked alongside Paul for two years. The two remained friends up to the time of Gates’ death.

“He was the first guy I met when I walked into Channel 9,” said Pat Shingleton. “He created a really great comfort zone for me. We had a lot of laughs and great times together, but when it came to getting work done and telling the day’s news, he was a very diligent and thorough journalist. I’m gonna miss him.”

WBRZ’s thoughts and prayers go out to the entire WAFB community in this difficult time.

Funeral arrangements have yet to be announced.