Garafola, 45, was fatally shot around 8:45 a.m. Sunday by a gunman who orchestrated an attack on police near the B-Quick convenience store on Airline Highway.
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The gunman, Gavin Eugene Long, 29, of Kansas City, Missouri, was shot and killed by police, but not before he shot and killed Garafola and two police officers.
Saturday services were held for East Baton Rouge Parish Deputy Brad Allen Garafola, a 24-year department veteran.
Garafola’s boss, the East Baton Rouge sheriff, Sid Gautreaux, described to reporters how he could see Garafola on surveillance video, firing at the gunman as bullets hit the concrete around him. Services for a third officer slain, 32-year-old Montrell Jackson, are slated for Monday.
Law enforcement officers from across the country gathered in Baton Rouge to honor Officer Matthew Gerald in the first of three scheduled services for the fallen officers.
The line of mourners snaked through hallways in the 1,500-seat sanctuary at Istrouma Baptist Church in Baton Rouge, out the back door and into the parking lot.
Officers are selected to be in the Honor Guard after an application process, and participate in it in addition to their regular duties.
Early arrivals for Garafola’s service included a deputy who worked with Garafola in the department’s foreclosure division. He said that when another deputy in the department was losing hair to chemotherapy, Garafola shaved his own head in support.
“My deputy went down fighting”, the sheriff said.
The Governor said that very verse defined Deputy Garafola in both life and death. Long came around the building from the other side and shot Garafola, killing him, and then shot the wounded officer, killing him as well, the sheriff said.
He had just returned to his police auto after writing down the license plate for Long’s rental vehicle when Long advanced on him, firing into the cruiser.
Garafola leaves behind a wife and four children: sons ages 21 and 12, and daughters ages 15 and 7.
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“It is a most noble profession, a profession of which you are often expected to remedy all societal ills and do so flawlessly with sometimes little respect and recognition”, said Casey Rayborn Hicks, public information officer for EBRSO.
