At vigil, Biden tries to comfort relatives of slain officers

Attorney General Loretta Lynch, from left, watches Vice President Joe Biden greet Trenisha Jackson, wife of Corporal Montrell Jackson during a memorial service for three law enforcement officers at Healing Place Church in Baton Rouge, La., Thursday, July 28, 2016. The gunman's bullets that killed the officers in Baton Rouge also targeted the country and "touched the soul of an entire nation," Vice President Joe Biden said Thursday at the memorial service for the fallen officers. (Bill Feig/The Advocate via AP)
Attorney General Loretta Lynch, from left, watches Vice President Joe Biden greet Trenisha Jackson, wife of Corporal Montrell Jackson during a memorial service for three law enforcement officers at Healing Place Church in Baton Rouge, La., Thursday, July 28, 2016. The gunman's bullets that killed the officers in Baton Rouge also targeted the country and "touched the soul of an entire nation," Vice President Joe Biden said Thursday at the memorial service for the fallen officers. (Bill Feig/The Advocate via AP)

BATON ROUGE, La. (AP) - The gunman's bullets that killed three law enforcement officers in Baton Rouge also targeted the country and "touched the soul of an entire nation," Vice President Joe Biden said Thursday at a memorial service for the fallen officers.

"We need to heal," said Biden, who was joined at a Baton Rouge church by Attorney General Loretta Lynch, Louisiana Gov. John Bel Edwards, the officers' widows and hundreds of others.

Biden spoke directly to three officers' relatives from the stage. He promised them a day will come when the memory of their loved ones will "bring a smile to your lips before it brings a tear to your eye."

"They were defined by their courage," he said. "It matters who they were, and it matters who we are as a country."

Baton Rouge police officers Matthew Gerald, 41, and Montrell Jackson, 32, and sheriff's deputy Brad Garafola, 45, were shot and killed by Gavin Long, an Army veteran from Kansas City, outside a convenience store on July 17.

Authorities said the gunman was targeting police officers.

"When that assassin's bullet targeted our heroes - and he was an assassin - he not only targeted them, he targeted the city. He targeted his country, and it touched the soul of the entire nation," Biden said.

Long, 29, also wounded three other officers before a SWAT officer gunned him down. Long killed the officers less than two weeks after protests erupted in Baton Rouge over the death of Alton Sterling, a 29-year-old black man who was shot and killed during a scuffle with two white police officers. The killing was captured on cellphone video and circulated widely on the internet.

Biden said he heard Sterling's aunt embraced the father of one of the slain officers during a chance encounter after the shooting. He said they prayed together because "loss is loss is loss."

Lynch said it can feel as if the world is "broken beyond repair" after tragedies like the deadly shootout in Baton Rouge. However, she said the gathering shows the community is united by "collective heartache" and a "common humanity."

Lynch is scheduled to remain in Baton Rouge through Friday afternoon to meet with local police officials and other first responders. The Justice Department is investigating Sterling's death. The two officers involved in that July 5 shooting were placed on administrative leave

Rosie Hernandez, whose nephew who is a Baton Rouge police officer, and her husband found seats Thursday inside the church where the vigil was held. The 62-year-old said she is confident the ceremony will help unite a community that has been grappling with racial tensions.

"Out of this tragedy, the hope is that we will become a closer community," she said.

Sheriff's Deputy Nicholas Tullier was critically wounded and has remained in a hospital since the shooting.

Jackson, a corporal, was a 10-year veteran of the Baton Rouge Police Department. He was married and had a 4-month-old son. Days before he was shot to death, Jackson posted a message on Facebook about the difficulties of being both a black man and a police officer in the tumultuous aftermath of Sterling's shooting.

"Please don't let hate infect your heart. This city MUST and WILL get better," wrote Jackson, whose funeral was Monday.

Garafola, whose funeral was Saturday, is survived by a wife and four children: sons ages 21 and 12, and daughters ages 15 and 7.

East Baton Rouge Sheriff Sid Gautreaux said Garafola "went down fighting," with surveillance video showing him firing at the gunman as bullets hit the concrete around him.

Gerald was a former Marine and Army veteran who served three tours in Iraq before joining the police force nine months ago. His wife, Dechia Gerald - now a widow with two young daughters - called him "my blue-eyed rock" in a written tribute. She expressed hope his legacy will "bridge the gap and foster peace in the country he lived, loved and died for."