Police officers from across the United States gathered at a church in Louisiana’s state capital with hundreds of other mourners on Friday for the first of three funerals for policemen killed this week by an Iraq war veteran.
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Gerald was among three law officers killed, and three wounded, in a shooting carried out Sunday by 29-year-old Gavin Eugene Long of Kansas City. Long, who was killed in the resulting shootout with police, left behind a trail of online posts and videos expressing anger over fatal shootings of black men by police, including the fatal shooting of Alton Sterling in Baton Rouge on July 5.
Gerald’s Army and Marine uniforms hung next to his flag-draped casket as photos on a big screen showed moments from his 11 years in the military, his fledgling police career and his family life.
“The media has blasted us for what we do and how we do it, basically portraying law enforcement as these band of bullies who go around and beat people up”, the chief said.
A Baton Rouge police officer and a mourner embrace at a funeral services for police officer Matthew Gerald at Healing Place Church in Baton Rouge, Louisiana, July 22, 2016.
Director of Training at the Baton Rouge Police Department Lt. J.D. Leach says even though Officer Gerald had only been on the force a few months, he set an example for the younger members training to become a police officer.
Robin’s husband is overseas, so she attended Officers Gerald’s service in his absence.
Cpl. Lester Mitchell began riding with Gerald on July 1.
“It’s numbing, with this many in such a short period of time” Cox said.
“We talked about the madness, how much it was putting a strain on the community, police relations”, Mitchell said during an interview before the funeral.
On the day of the attack, the partners had been writing reports at police headquarters when Gerald said he was feeling exhausted, and was going for an energy drink at the B-Quick convenience store a few blocks away.
Police said Long had meant to kill as many officers as possible before a SWAT team marksman fatally shot him.
Someone at the store approached Gerald, saying an armed man was walking through the area, Mitchell said.
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He says we need to put aside our differences and start to understand respect. Gerald radioed back to dispatch, which sent Mitchell and other officers racing over. “We’re concerned about them, we wanted to have prayer with them and to try to give them some hope in a awful situation”. “He had already been shot when we got there”.
