BATON ROUGE, La. — Matthew Gerald’s bravery and enthusiasm for his new job — Baton Rouge police officer — was no surprise to Ryan Cabral, who served with Gerald on a helicopter crew in Iraq.
“Like most other police officers, they go where they’re needed,” Cabral, an Army veteran and police officer in Temple, Texas, said in a telephone interview Monday night. “They know what the dangers are, but that’s how they’re made. They’re made to serve.”
The 41-year-old Gerald was one of three officers killed Sunday in what police called an ambush by a lone gunman, who also died. The shooting traumatized a nation already on edge.
Cabral remembers Gerald as a man of infectious enthusiasm for anything he took on.
So does Gerald’s neighbor, Ashley Poe. She recalls a few months ago when Gerald was fresh out of the police academy, proudly washing his new police cruiser in the driveway of his home under a blazing Louisiana sun. She watched as he flicked the blue lights on and off, on and off.
