One of the Baton Rouge, La., police officers killed in Sunday's shooting has been identified by family as Montrell L. Jackson, The Advocate reports.
The 32-year-old had reportedly been injured once trying to save a toddler from a burning building and had only recently welcomed a son into his family four months ago before he was shot dead Sunday in the latest shooting incident to shake the nation.
Jackson was a 10-year-veteran of the Baton Rouge department.
"He loved his job," Darnell Murdock, one of Jackson's friends, told The Advocate.
"It motivated him to go out and change people's lives. He was on [the force] to help people, to make you have a better day," Murdock added. "He was humble, kind and sweet. … He wasn't on there to write tickets. I don't understand how this could happen to someone like him."
According to the New York Times, Jackson had reflected on the horrific attack in Dallas that left five police officers dead and spoken of the turmoil he faced as he wore his own uniform and tried to do his best at his job.
"I'm tired physically and emotionally," Jackson wrote on his Facebook page July 8, the morning after the Dallas attack. "I swear to God I love this city, but I wonder if this city loves me. In uniform, I get nasty hateful looks, and out of uniform some consider me a threat. I’ve experienced so much in my short life and these last 3 days have tested me to the core.
“This city MUST and WILL get better," he added, bringing his post back home to Baton Rouge, his own constituency. "I’m working in these streets so any protesters, officers, friends, family or whoever, if you see me and need a hug or want to say a prayer. I got you.”
Jackson's family grieves the loss of a "wonderful person."
According to the Chicago Tribune, Jocelyn Jackson, Montrell Jackson's sister, was in church when she found out her brother was among the three killed in the shooting.
"I didn't want to break down in church, but it was just something I couldn't hold," Jocelyn Jackson said. "He was a wonderful person. A wonderful person.
"God gives nobody the right to kill and take another person's life," she said.
"It's coming to the point where no lives matter," the grieving sister added, "whether you're black or white or Hispanic or whatever."
Marcus Brown, Montrell Jackson's cousin, remembered him as a "great police officer" who never complained about his job.
"He was just a good person in general," Brown said.
"Everybody is in disbelief," he added. "This hits so close to home."