Slain officer remembered as a ‘giant of a man’

LOUISIANA | BATON ROUGE — Baton Rouge police officer Montrell Jackson’s pleas for the city to unite and “don’t let hate infect your heart” echoed Monday throughout the funeral service that grieved a man who only four months earlier had been celebrating the birth of his son.

Jackson wrote those words days before he was shot to death, in a Facebook post that described the difficulties of being both a black man and a police officer.

His younger brother, Kedrick Pitts, repeated the words again at Jackson’s funeral.

“All I wanted to do was be like you,” Pitts said, speaking to his brother. “Now I can brag about you being an angel.”

Then, he told the overflowing church: “God bless you all. Don’t let hate infect your heart.”

Jackson and two other law enforcement officers were killed July 17 by a masked gunman who officials say appeared to be targeting police.

Thousands packed the church in north Baton Rouge for a two-and-ahalf-hour service celebrating the 32-year-old corporal in joyful singing and dancing mixed with tearful memories.

Mourners described Jackson as a loyal friend, an officer who loved his city and a proud father of his 4-month-old son Mason.

“This city MUST and WILL get better,” Jackson wrote in his Facebook message. And he ended with: “If you see me and need a hug or want to say a prayer. I got you.”

[PHOTO BY PATRICK DENNIS/BATON ROUGE ADVOCATE VIA AP] A member of Baton Rouge police Cpl. Montrell Jackson’s unit kneels and touches his casket during his funeral Monday at the Living Faith Christian Center in Baton Rouge, La. Jackson and multiple police officers were killed and wounded July 17, in a...