Baton Rouge rally for slain officers draws hundeds

BATON ROUGE, La. – Hundreds of people, white and black, attended a rally supporting law-enforcement officers at Baton Rouge police headquarters, about a mile from where three officers were shot to death Sunday morning.

Many in the crowd Tuesday night were bikers, who rumbled past the shooting scene in a long line of motorcycles before the gathering.

Police Lt. Robert McGarner struggled to keep his emotions in check as he stepped up to the microphone to address the crowd.

“Y’all realize what this means to us?” McGarner said. Later, officers bowed their heads as a bugler played taps.

Just down the street, on a corner across from the police station, black activist Redell Norman and a handful of supporters who have protested the police shooting of Alton Sterling held a smaller demonstration that included Black Lives Matters signs and forms for anyone who wanted to register to vote.

“It’s protest with a purpose,” Norman said.