Hundreds of mourners began gathering at the church where funeral services were about to begin for slain Baton Rouge Police Officer Matthew Gerald.
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Funerals for the other slain officers – East Baton Rouge Sheriff’s Deputy Brad Garafola and Officer Montrell Jackson of the Baton Rouge Police Department – will be held on Saturday and Monday, respectively. “Basically, portraying law enforcement as these bunch of bullies who go around and beat people up …”
“It’s a tragedy over there”, said Eunice Police Chief Randy Fontenot, “It takes a lot of man hours, man power, to get something like this to continue to protect the city and do everything that’s required during something like this so we need to help each other out. And they throw us under the bus for it. And that’s wrong”, Dabadie added.
Officer Gerald’s flag-draped coffin was next to his army and marine uniforms.
“My blue-eyed rock was a hero”, wrote Dechia Gerald, now a widow with two young girls. One wounded sheriff’s deputy remains in critical condition, while another left a Baton Rouge hospital on Thursday after surgeries to fix serious arm injuries.
The gunman, Gavin Long, was shot and killed by police. Garafola and at least two other Baton Rouge law enforcement officers investigating a report of a man with an assault rifle were killed Sunday, July 17, 2016, less than two weeks after a black man was fatally shot by police here in a confrontation that sparked nightly protests that reverberated nationwide.
At the funeral, Mayor Holden called Americans to quit the “us vs. them” mentality that only encourages violence, and said that police officers respect citizens, and they also deserved respect.
“I’ve been serving my country and now it’s time to serve my community, ‘” Leach recalled Gerald telling him.
That text message was the last Mulkey received from Gerald before a lone gunman enraged by recent police shootings killed the 41-year-old rookie.
He was partnered with Cpl.
Local law enforcement will be heading to Baton Rouge this weekend to pay their respects to the three officers who were shot and killed in the line of duty. Days later, Baton Rouge was shaken by the controversial shooting of a black man named Alton Sterling. They were discussing how much all those situations were putting a strain on the community and police relations, said Mitchell as reported by the CBS News. Company owner Trey Ganem said Gerald’s reflects his military background and his family. “It was just in his DNA”.
Mitchell and Gerald were working together Sunday, when Gerald chose to head to the B-Quick convenience store to get an energy drink.
Someone at the store approached Gerald, saying an armed man was walking through the area, Mitchell said. Mitchell arrived at the scene with another police officer, but gunfires had already been shot, and Matthew Gerald was already hit.
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“We’ll come out better”, Tilly said.
