Last of slain Baton Rouge officers to be buried Monday

BATON ROUGE, LA. >> Hundreds of law enforcement officers from around the country streamed past the casket Monday of a slain Baton Rouge police officer, some solemnly saluting and others making the sign of the cross as they paid their respects and mourned one of their own.

Montrell Jackson, slain by a gunman who authorities said targeted law enforcement, is the last of the three Louisiana law enforcement officers killed in last week’s ambush to be buried.

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. He’d been at the two other funerals as well.

“They’re always difficult,” Fendrick said. But he added: “We know the effect we have for the family when we have officers together in great numbers. I think that’s the main meaning here, to show that their loved one was just as important to us as to them.”