Many in the crowd Tuesday night were bikers, who rumbled past the shooting scene in a long line of motorcycles before the gathering.
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Tuesday evening a procession of a few hundred motorcyclists roared down Airline Highway and gathered at police headquarters to show their respects. Based on his YouTube videos, where he claims to be in Dallas on July 10, it is surmised that he then drove to Baton Rouge, where he spent six days before going to on the attack at a carwash and gas station popular with police.
Baton Rouge cop killer Gavin Eugene Long. There will be no graveside service, but there will be a processional from the church to Greenoaks Funeral Home. “Stop this killing”, said the aunt of Alton Sterling, the 37-year-old man shot to death by Baton Rouge police on July 5.
“These are trying times”.
Garafola had four children, the eldest a 21-year-old son, the youngest a 7-year-old daughter. “It’s been especially tough on the families that lost loved ones in the shooting that took three officers” lives and injured three others.
The officers in Baton Rouge were responding to a call of shots fired when they were attacked by at least one gunman, Baton Rouge Mayor Kip Holden said.
The officers lived in the area of Denham Springs, a quiet bedroom community across the Amite River from Baton Rouge, which has been in turmoil for two weeks.
The officers Long killed were Officer Montrell Jackson of the Baton Rouge Police Department; Officer Matthew Gerald, also with Baton Rouge Police; and Deputy Brad Garafola with the East Baton Rouge Sheriff’s Department.
“Why did he pick Baton Rouge, why did he pick that location right there, and why did he kill police officers?”
“This is a time for all of Baton Rouge to stand together!”
The group condemned recent violence and called for more community policing tactics.
“Unless relationships are established, there will be no changes”.
“I just want us to have peace and drive down the road and not feel like we have to duck our heads and look around and see if someone’s going to be on top of a roof”, said Pam Collins, a resident of a Baton Rouge suburb who brought three shiny balloons to honor the officers.
Long never talked to him about anger toward the police or the way they treated blacks, said Woodley, who added he never saw his stepson with a weapon.
Long died in the ensuing gunfight with police.
Obama met with Attorney General Loretta Lynch, FBI Director James Comey and Homeland Security Secretary Jeh Johnson in the Oval Office.
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President Barack Obama published an open letter to USA law enforcement days after the deaths of three Louisiana police officers, seeking to counter criticism that he’s indifferent to the plight of police amid tensions with minority communities. Now we continue to speak out about the issues that have helped create disconnects with members of the communities to work so hard to protect.
