Baton Rouge police officer Montrell Jackson, one of three law enforcement officers killed July 17 by a lone gunman, was laid to rest Monday.
Like those of Baton Rouge police officer Matthew Gerald on Friday and East Baton Rouge Sheriff's Deputy Brad Garafola on Saturday, Jackson's funeral was attended by thousands of mourners, including law enforcement officers from across the country.
Jackson, who is survived by his wife, and 4-month-old son, served on the Baton Rouge Police Department for 10 years.
Corporal Ivory Taylor Jr., along with other members of Jackson's police squad, addressed mourners gathered at Living Faith Christian Center: "We're not here to mourn the death of Montrell, we're here to celebrate his life," he said.
"Montrell loved God, loved his family, loved his squad," Taylor said. "Montrell loved this city and he loved being part of the Baton Rouge Police Department.
"This job isn't easy," he said. "There's a thin line between calm and chaos and that line is blue, that line is us."
"We'll miss you," he said. "But your legacy will live on in all of us."
Alex Montgomery III of the Lafayette Parish Sheriff's Office, attended the funeral as president of the Magnolia State Peace Officers Association. The group, a non-profit community service organization made up of black law enforcement officers, declared July 25 Corporal Montrell Jackson Day.
Gov. John Bel Edwards called Jackson a pillar of the community.
"There's no doubt that Montrell was a peacemaker," Edwards said. "Being a child of God is important, and recognizing that everyone else is a child of God is important.
"If we allow that to guide us as we interact with other people," Edwards said, there's no doubt that Baton Rouge, Louisiana and this nation will be a better place.
The four months Jackson got to spend with his son, Mason were not nearly enough, Edwards said.
But, he said, "We are going to do better. We are going to be better...I pray that we will all work together to make Baton Rouge and Louisiana and our nation a better place for all of us, but especially for Mason."
Edwards expressed hope that Jackson's son would remember his father as having played a big role in improving the community, "if only we will pick up the baton and keep moving with it."
Carl Dabadie Jr. Baton Rouge police chief, called Jackson a giant of a man.
"He represented the very best of the blue," Dabadie said. "He was a hero of a man with a heart of gold."
Just days before he was shot and killed, Jackson 32, posted an emotional Facebook message saying he was "physically and emotionally" tired and expressing how difficult it was to be both a police officer and a black man.
"I swear to God I love this city but I wonder if this city loves me," Jackson wrote.
In the Facebook posting, Jackson said while in uniform he gets nasty looks; out of uniform, he wrote, some consider him a threat.
The message was posted July 8, just three days after a black man was shot and killed by police in Baton Rouge. That shooting was the beginning of an extremely tense week in the country's fraught history of race relations. Another black man was shot and killed by police the next day in Minnesota, with his girlfriend livestreaming the aftermath on Facebook. Then a black gunman opened fire during a protest against the police shootings in Dallas, killing five police officers.
Jackson does not specifically refer to those events but the posting appears to be a reaction to them.
Jackson was gunned down July 17 alongside Gerald and Garafola about a half-mile from Baton Rouge police headquarters on Airline Highway by a shooter identified as Gavin Long of Kansas City, Missouri. The suspect was killed by police.
