Dechia Gerald, 38, the wife of officer Matthew Gerald, said she discovered the news after taking a pregnancy test around two weeks after he was killed by Gavin Long.
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Baton Rouge, in particular was on edge.
Matthew, a rookie cop, was a retired Marine corporal and one of three officers shot and killed during a shooting spree that left three other officers injured.
A few days later, when she was bathing three-year-old Fynleigh, she recalls: ‘Fynleigh told me the same thing.
Gerald’s memorial service on July 23 was attended by hundreds of police officers from across the country, including Louisiana, where his daughter, Fynleigh, 3, and his step-daughter, Dawclyn, stood with their crying mother next to his casket.
“I wanted to cry but at the same time, it’s exciting”, Gerald said Tuesday, announcing that she’s 10 weeks pregnant.
The couple, who already had two daughters, were treated to a rare night together in the midst of a string of 12-hour shifts Gerald worked during the summer’s protests. For her, the baby represents a gift that her fallen husband has left behind to the world.
But a pregnancy test confirmed her daughters’ suspicions more than a week later. “I mean obviously he left us a very special gift behind, but at the same time, all those days that I get overwhelmed, I ask how am I going to do this by myself without him”, Gerald said.
“I just wanted to let the world know about his gift he left behind when he left us”, she added.
“If you notice, it looks like a wedding ring inside of there”, Gerald said pointing at her ultrasound.
“I felt like when I saw that he was with us”, she told WAFB.
The widow of one of the police officers shot dead in Baton Rouge back in July has revealed she is pregnant with his child. “There is no better gift than that”.
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Her child is due in April.
