The Washington Post
Theresa Vargas
3 hrs ago
G.O.P. Gathers, Focused on Law and Order
GOP to kick off convention; Trump to make surprise visit
© Berrien County Sheriff's Office/AP Photo
In this undated photo released by the Berrien County Sheriff's Office, Deputy James Atterberry Jr. is shown. Authorities say 44-year-old Larry Darnell Gordon was handcuffed Monday, July 11, 2016 at Berrien County's Circuit Court when he disarmed Atterberry during a fight and shot him. The sheriff's department announced Wednesday that Atterberry was released from the hospital.A woman also was shot in the arm and hostages were briefly taken before Gordon was fatally shot by other bailiffs. Bailiffs Joseph Zangaro and Ronald Kienzle died in the incident.
Joycelyn Jackson was already sitting in church when she found herself needing God most. She hadn’t yet learned that her younger brother Montrell Jackson was among the three officers killed in Baton Rouge when her pastor asked the congregation to send prayers to her family.
“I didn’t want to break down in church, but it was just something I couldn’t hold,” said Jackson, 49. “He was a wonderful person. A wonderful person.”
Joycelyn Jackson said that she understands the anger behind the movement Black Lives Matter but that “God gives nobody the right to kill and take another person’s life.” Montrell Jackson, 32, had gotten married in the past few years and had a baby boy he adored, she said.
“It’s coming to the point where no lives matter,” she said, “whether you’re black or white or Hispanic or whatever.”
In an emotional Facebook post on July 8, Montrell Jackson wrote that he was “tired physically and emotionally.”
“I swear to God I love this city but I wonder if this city loves me,” he wrote. “In uniform I get nasty hateful looks and out of uniform some consider me a threat. … These are trying times. Please don’t let hate infect your heart. This city MUST and WILL get better.”
On a GoFundMe page set up for the fallen officer by a relative, he is described as a hero in a “time of uncertainty and imminent danger.”
© courtesy of Joycelyn Jackson Slain officer's sister: ‘It’s coming to the point where no lives matter’
“Words cannot describe the devastation that we feel right now,” reads the page. “Rest in Peace, Montrell, you will always be our Hero.”
Virginia Tech quarterback Josh Jackson identified the officer as his cousin on Twitter, using a hashtag that many adopted Sunday: #PrayForBatonRouge
“Rest in peace to my cousin Montrell Jackson who was one of the policeman that was killed.”
Joycelyn Jackson said that her brother, at 6-foot-3, towered over many, but that in her memories he will always be that little boy who was a picky eater. She said his siblings would tease him about how when he was about 9, he insisted on eating only Burger King Whoppers for dinner. Jackson said she was the one who would get him to eat other food.
Jackson said she never worried about her brother, who was “outgoing” and “kind,” being on the force, not until recent tensions in Baton Rouge after officers fatally shot Alton Sterling earlier this month outside a convenience store.
Jackson said another brother had told the pastor about their brother’s death before she made it to church for an afternoon service. Afterward, she said, the weight of it “rushed” over her.
If she could talk to the shooter, or anyone considering violence against officers, she said she’d remind them of a judgment beyond the penal system.
“If I could say anything to anyone, it is to get their lives right with God,” she said. “Hell is horrible, horrible place to be.”
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