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Loved ones and colleagues took the altar at Westside Baptist Church and shared emotional goodbyes as a gathering of about 4,000 attended the funeral of a fallen St. Lucie County deputy.
"To Brooklyn and Jordan, every day, your dad told us how much he loved you," St. Lucie County Sheriff Ken Mascara said a the funeral service.Morales, 35, was a decorated deputy who was remembered as a loving husband and doting father of two young girls named Brooklyn and Jordan, as well as a community-minded hero who gave his time to local students.
Mascara spoke glowingly of Morales' 13-year career with the force, pausing for a moment during the ovation he received after announcing the department's training facility will be renamed the Gary Morales Training Complex.
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A public viewing began at 10 a.m. before the funeral service started at noon. The ceremony lasted at least 90 minutes before hundreds of law-enforcement vehicles began to lead the 20-plus-mile journey to Palm City.
The internment ended shortly before 5 p.m., following a 21-gun salute, a rendition of "Taps" and a flyover by six sheriff's helicopters.
All this happened Monday as Eriese Tisdale sat in jail without bond, accused of shooting the deputy three times during a traffic stop in Fort Pierce on Thursday. Tisdale said he shot Morales in self-defense, but another deputy said that when he arrived as backup, Tisdale was firing at Morales, who still hadn't even gotten out of his cruiser.
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