The showing of support for Officer Matthew Gerald stretched wider than city or state limits.
Officers poured in nationwide in many different ways to say goodbye and show support.
“Just being there in uniform. Your presence says a lot,” Bossier Parish Sheriff Julian Whittington said.
Law enforcement officers from all 50 states attended Officer Gerald’s funeral service on Friday. Some took a path less traveled.
“Jet Blue was kind enough to fly all law enforcement for free. And unfortunately we had to fly to New York to get to New Orleans, but it is what it is,” Officer Kevin Schwebs of the Jupiter, Florida, Police Department said.
Schwebs came with a partner because with law enforcement, there’s strength in numbers.
“We’re not alone. Nobody from Baton Rogue is alone. So I think it’s symbolic,” Jupiter Detective Mark Bujnowski said.
Whittington says events like this are inspiring.
“I was talking to a fellow sheriff and he said, I’ve never really done too much of this. But he said wow…I see what our team’s been missing,” Whittington said.
Louisiana U.S. Senator Bill Cassidy said the wide reaching support couldn’t be missed. There were officers from Chicago, Miami and Cincinnati, among many more saluting.
For a team of Shreveport officers, it was simply a matter of returning the favor from a time when their department lost an officer to violence.
“They’ve already done it for us. So we want to show that everybody’s a family. We are all police officers and just because we live in a different city or a different state that doesn’t mean that we don’t understand what they are going through,” Shreveport Police Department Corporal Shawn Hurd said.