Just days before he was shot and killed, a Baton Rouge police officer, Montrell Jackson 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.
Friends and family of Jackson, 32, were mourning the 10-year veteran of the police force that relatives described as a “gentle giant” and a “protector” after he and another two law enforcement officers were shot and killed Sunday morning by a gunman.
The message was posted on 8 July, just three days after a black man was shot and killed by police in Baton Rouge. That shooting was the beginning of an extremely tense week in the country’s fraught history of race relations. Another black man was shot and killed by police the next day in Minnesota, with his girlfriend live-streaming the aftermath on Facebook. Then a black gunman opened fire during a protest against the police shootings in Dallas, killing five police officers.
Kedrick Pitts, the 24-year-old younger half brother of Jackson, said he was very close to his older brother.
Pitts said he woke up Sunday to find his mother crying as news broke about the shooting involving police. He drove his mother to the hospital and it was there that they discovered Jackson had been shot. He said Jackson leaves behind a wife and a 4-month-old son named Mason.
Jackson and his family were planning to go to Houston soon for a vacation, Kedrick Pitts, the 24-year-old younger half brother of Jackson said.
Pitts, stunned by his brother’s death, put on a brave face and did not shed any tears. “I did all the crying I can do. It’s not going to bring him back,” he said.
(With inputs from AP.)
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