Biden, Lynch try to comfort slain Baton Rouge officers' relatives

(Pool/Getty Images News)

BATON ROUGE, La. – Vice President Joe Biden says the gunman's bullets that killed three law enforcement officers in Baton Rouge also targeted the country and "touched the soul of an entire nation."

During a memorial service Thursday at a Baton Rouge church, Biden spoke directly to relatives of the fallen officers. He promised them that a day will come when the memory of their loved ones will "bring a smile to your lips before it brings a tear to your eye."

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An Army veteran from Kansas City, Missouri, killed the officers less than two weeks after protests erupted in Baton Rouge over the death of Alton Sterling, a 29-year-old black man who was shot and killed during a scuffle with two white police officers.

Biden said he heard that Sterling's aunt embraced the father of one of the slain officers during a chance encounter after the shooting. He said they prayed together because "loss is loss is loss."

Attorney General Loretta Lynch says Americans can pay tribute to the sacrifices of the three slain law enforcement officers by standing together in unity and rejecting resentment and anger.

Lynch hailed the officers as heroes. Lynch said it can feel as if the world is "broken beyond repair" after tragedies.

But she said the gathering shows the community is united by "collective heartache" and a "common humanity."

Lynch is scheduled to remain in Baton Rouge through Friday afternoon to meet with local police officials and other first responders.

Forty-one-year-old Baton Rouge police officer Matthew Gerald, 45-year-old sheriff's deputy Brad Garafola and 32-year-old police officer Montrell Jackson were shot and killed July 17 by 29-year-old Gavin Long, an Army veteran from Kansas City, Missouri. Long also wounded three other officers before a SWAT officer gunned him down.

Sheriff's Deputy Nicholas Tullier was critically wounded and has remained in a hospital since the shooting.

Authorities said Long was targeting police when he ambushed the officers in Baton Rouge, where racial tensions had been mounting amid protests over a deadly police shooting. Alton Sterling, a 37-year-old black man, was shot and killed during a struggle with two white police officers July 5.

Jackson, a corporal, was a 10-year veteran of the Baton Rouge Police Department. He was married and had a 4-month-old son. Days before he was shot to death, Jackson posted a message on Facebook about the difficulties of being both a black man and a police officer in the tumultuous aftermath of Sterling's shooting.

"Please don't let hate infect your heart. This city MUST and WILL get better," wrote Jackson, whose funeral was Monday.

Garafola, whose funeral was Saturday, is survived by a wife and four children: sons ages 21 and 12, and daughters ages 15 and 7.

Sheriff Sid Gautreaux said Garafola "went down fighting," with surveillance video showing him firing at the gunman as bullets hit the concrete around him.

Gerald was a former Marine and Army veteran who served three tours in Iraq before joining the police force nine months ago. His wife, Dechia Gerald — now a widow with two young daughters — called him "my blue-eyed rock" in a written tribute. She expressed hope that his legacy will "bridge the gap and foster peace in the country he lived, loved and died for."