SLAIN OFFICER POSTED EMOTIONAL FACEBOOK MESSAGE DAYS BEFORE DEATH

BATON ROUGE, LA. • Just days before he was shot and killed Sunday, a Baton Rouge police officer 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, a friend said Sunday.

“I swear to God I love this city but I wonder if this city loves me,” Montrell Jackson wrote.

Friends and family of Jackson were mourning the 10-year-veteran of the police force who relatives described as a “gentle giant” and a “protector” after he and another two law enforcement officers were shot and killed by a gunman.

“I’ve experienced so much in my short life and these last three days have tested me to the core,” the posting read.

The message was posted July 8, just three days after a black man was shot and killed by police in Baton Rouge. Another black man was shot and killed by police the next day in Minnesota.

Erika Green said Sunday she is friends with Jackson’s family and she saw the message on his Facebook page.

“These are trying times. Please don’t let hate infect your heart,” Jackson wrote.

Kedrick Pitts, 24, said he was very close to Jackson, his half-brother.

“With him it was God, family and the police force,” Pitts said outside his mother’s house in Baton Rouge, where family was gathered Sunday. “He went above and beyond ... He was a protector.”

He said his brother joined the force in 2006.