A Houston man is giving a special gift to family members of the three Baton Rouge officers who were killed in an ambush. Several police officers and sheriff deputies were killed and wounded Sunday morning in a shooting near a gas station in Baton Rouge, less than two weeks after a black man was shot and killed by police here, sparking nightly protests across the city.
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Also killed in the ambush were Officer Matthew Gerald of the Baton Rouge Police Department and Deputy Brad Garafola Sr. of the East Baton Rouge Parish Sheriff’s Office. Local sheriff’s deputy Brad Garafola’s will be remembered at a Saturday funeral. Another unidentified Baton Rouge officer was released from the hospital earlier this week.
Visitation is set Thursday evening for city police department officer Matthew Gerald.
“These guys made the ultimate sacrifice for us, and so I want to give back”, said Trey Ganem, who used to wear the badge, too.
“Officer Gerald’s wife wanted his military background represented as well as his family”, said Trey Ganem, owner of the company in Edna, Texas, and a former police officer. He added that Garafola’s family plans to have him cremated after the funeral and will also receive a customized burial urn.
A heartfelt donation is on its way from Southeast Texas to Baton Rouge, Louisiana. The U.S. Department of Justice has opened a civil rights investigation into the incident. Video recordings that surfaced after the shooting raised questions about whether Sterling was a threat during his altercation with two Baton Rouge police officers.
Ganem’s wife noticed that one of the officers killed Sunday was the Jackson, the author of the online post.
“It’s a lot of responsibility and it has to be passionate and it has to be flawless”, said Ganem.
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Yet, based on videos and other content posted by Long on social media, it is evident that he advocated violence as a means of fighting “oppressors”.
