Deputy mourned: Hundreds pay respects to Louisiana officer killed by gunman.

BATON ROUGE, La. — Hundreds of people lined up Saturday to pay their respects to the family of a Louisiana sheriff ’s deputy killed by a gunman six days earlier.

Deputy Brad Garafola and two other Baton Rouge police officers were killed outside a convenience store less than a mile from police headquarters.

The line of mourners snaked through hallways in the 1,500-seat sanctuary at Istrouma Baptist Church, out the back door and into the parking lot. It included scores of officers from around Louisiana and from coast to coast.

Early arrivals for Garafola’s service included a deputy who worked with Garafola in the department’s foreclosure division. Deputy Greg McLean described Garafola as a generous family man. He said that when another deputy in the department was losing hair to chemotherapy, Garafola shaved his own head in support.

Garafola, 45, was laid to rest one day after hundreds turned out for a funeral service for Baton Rouge police Officer Matthew Gerald, 41.

Funeral services for the third slain officer, 32-year-old Montrell Jackson, are slated for Monday. A multiagency memorial service for the officers is scheduled for Thursday.

The three men were shot and killed by 29year-old gunman Gavin Long; three other officers were also wounded in the shooting. Long was killed by police.

The shootings came at a time of racial tension in the city and country after a black man was shot and killed during a confrontation with two white police officers outside a convenience store. The next day a black man in Minnesota was shot and killed by police, and his girlfriend streamed the aftermath on Facebook. The day after that, a black gunman in Dallas opened fire during a protest against the Minnesota and Baton Rouge shootings, and killed five police officers.

Garafola’s boss, East Baton Rouge Sheriff Sid Gautreaux, described to reporters how he could see Garafola on surveillance video, firing at the gunman as bullets hit the concrete around him.

“My deputy went down fighting. He returned fire to the very end,” the sheriff said.

He is survived by a wife and four children: daughters ages 7 and 15, and sons ages 12 and 21.