Saturday services were held for East Baton Rouge Parish Deputy Brad Allen Garafola, a 24-year department veteran.
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Garafola was one of three Baton Rouge law enforcement officers who died that day in an ambush carried out by a lone gunman who also injured three officers, one of whom remains in critical condition.
All 1,500 seats in the church were filled for the public funeral for Garafola.
Gov. John Bel Edwards said strength and courage seem to have defined Garafola’s life and death.
East Baton Rouge Parish Sheriff Sid Gautreaux acknowledged Sgt. Bruce Simmons, who was also shot on Sunday while responding to the call, and asked for prayers for Cpl.
He said Garafola died “doing what Brad had always done – trying to help someone else”.
Two police officers and two sheriff’s deputies came from the Seattle area.
During two hours of visitation before the funeral, a line of mourners snaked through the church hallways, out the back door and into the parking lot. It included scores of officers from around Louisiana and from coast to coast.
Michael Fendrick, a sheriff’s deputy from Dakota County, Minnesota, was among those officers who traveled to the service as part of an honor guard team. Bellevue police Officer Paul Dill said their chief feels it’s important to honor brother and sister officers.
Shelley Bordelon, who said she was a childhood friend of slain Baton Rouge Police Officer Matthew Gerald, brought her children out to show them the sacrifices police make.
The show of bipartisanship between Baton Rouge’s two U.S. House members comes after an unsettling two weeks that put Louisiana at the forefront of a national debate about race and law enforcement.
Just days before his death, the 32-year-old Jackson – married with a 4-month-old son named Mason – wrote a Facebook post detailing how hard it was for him to be both a black man and a police officer, describing himself as “tired physically and emotionally”.
Early arrivals for Garafola’s service included a deputy who worked with Garafola in the department’s foreclosure division and was dressed in Scottish regalia as drum major for a pipe band.
Deputy Greg McLean described Garafola as a generous family man.
The 45-year-old was one of three officers killed in an ambush outside a convenience store on Airline Highway in Baton Rouge.
The services for Garafola were held the same day mourners gathered in Kansas City, Kan., for the funeral of Capt. Robert “Dave” Melton, who was gunned down Tuesday in his patrol vehicle while searching for a shooting suspect. The day after that, a black gunman in Dallas opened fire during a protest against the Minnesota and Baton Rouge shootings, and killed five police officers.
They filed quietly Monday morning to the black coffin holding the body of Montrell Jackson.
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Two of the three wounded officers have been released from the hospital, one after reconstructive surgery on an arm. Officials say they don’t know if Gavin Long’s attack came in response to Sterling’s death, but they say the officers were clearly targeted by the 29-year-old black gunman.
