Friends and family are gathering to remember Brad Garafola, one of three officers shot and killed last Sunday by a gunman. It included scores of officers from around Louisiana and from coast to coast.
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Baton Rouge police Corporal Montrell Jackson, Officer Matthew Gerald and Deputy Brad Garafola Sr. of the East Baton Rouge Parish Sheriff’s Office were gunned down last Sunday outside a gas station by a man targeting police.
He said Garafola died “doing what Brad had always done – trying to help someone else”. Edna is about 90 miles southwest of Houston.
Garafola was taking cover behind a dumpster during the firefight when he saw a wounded Baton Rouge police officer make his way around the corner of a building, Gautreaux said.
Work in that division requires someone who can defuse the fraught business of eviction and repossession, and Garafola was good at keeping things calm, Deputy Greg McLean said.
Two of the three wounded officers have been released from the hospital, one after reconstructive surgery on an arm.
Members of a police honor guard raise their hands in salute as the casket of Baton Rouge police officer Matthew Gerald exits the Healing Place Church after funeral services in Baton Rouge, La., Friday, July 22, 2016.
Hundreds of loved ones and fellow law enforcement said farewell to the 45-year-old sheriff’s deputy, as the funeral procession moved past the convenience store outside which he was killed.
Just days before he was shot and killed, Jackson posted an emotional Facebook message saying he was “physically and emotionally” exhausted and expressing how hard it was to be both a police officer and a black man. Long was killed by police.
East Baton Rouge Sheriff Sid Gautreaux said Monday the officers involved in the shootout “ran to the threat, not from the threat”.
Gautreaux told reporters earlier that surveillance video showed Garafola firing at the gunman as bullets hit the concrete around him.
“My deputy went down fighting”, the sheriff said.
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The Governor said that very verse defined Deputy Garafola in both life and death. News stories displayed here appear in our category for US Headlines and are licensed via a specific agreement between LongIsland.com and The Associated Press, the world’s oldest and largest news organization. Please see our terms of service for more information.
