Biden consoles at memorial in Baton Rouge

BATON ROUGE — 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,” Vice President Joe Biden said Thursday at a memorial service for the fallen officers.

“We need to heal,” said Biden, who was joined at a Baton Rouge church by Attorney General Loretta Lynch, Louisiana Gov. John Bel Edwards, the officers’ widows and hundreds of others. Biden spoke directly to the three officers’ relatives from the stage. 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.”

“They were defined by their courage,” he said. “It matters who they were, and it matters who we are as a country.”

Baton Rouge police officers Matthew Gerald, 41, and Montrell Jackson, 32, and sheriff’s deputy Brad Garafola, 45, were shot and killed by Gavin Long, an Army veteran from Kansas City, Mo., outside a convenience store on July 17.

Authorities say the gunman was targeting police officers.

“When that assassin’s bullet targeted our heroes — and he was an assassin — he not only targeted them, he targeted the city. He targeted his country, and it touched the soul of the entire nation,” Biden said.

Long, 29, also wounded three other officers before a SWAT officer gunned him down. Long killed the officers less than two weeks after protests erupted in Baton Rouge over the death of Alton Sterling, a 37-year-old black man who was shot and killed during a scuffle with two white police officers. The killing was captured on cellphone video and circulated widely on the Internet. 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.”

Lynch said it can feel as if the world is “broken beyond repair” after tragedies like the deadly shootout in Baton Rouge. But she said the gathering shows the community is united by “collective heartache” and a “common humanity.” “We are not alone,” she said. “The pain that we feel is shared by everyone, as is our hope in the future that has always been this nation’s guiding star.”

Lynch was to remain in Baton Rouge through this afternoon to meet with area police officials and other first responders. The Justice Department is investigating Sterling’s death. The two officers involved in his July 5 shooting were placed on administrative leave. Rosie Hernandez, whose nephew is a Baton Rouge police officer, attended the service with her husband. She said she is confident that the ceremony will help unite a community that has been grappling with racial tensions.

“Out of this tragedy, the hope is that we will become a closer community,” she said.

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