Former Plano Officer Used To Work With One Of Fallen Baton Rouge Officers

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DALLAS (CBS11) - Marcus Tillman had just walked into his Dallas-area church Sunday morning when he got the call from his former captain at the Baton Rouge Police Department.

"He said Montrell. I was like, Montrell who? Jackson? He was like yeah and just all the air was just sucked out of my body. I just fell to the ground," said Tillman.

Tillman learned his former partner and inspiration as a police officer had just been killed. Montrell Jackson and two other officers were shot and killed by Gavin Long, investigators said.

"He was just like the light," said Tillman.

Tillman eventually left the Baton Rouge Police Department and became an officer for Plano Police.

He said while an injury forced him to quit the force, he still thinks like an officer.

"In your mind you start thinking, what if? What if? What if I wouldn't have moved here? I'd still be there? What if I was there?" questioned Tillman, as tears ran down his face.

Police said Long was in Dallas just two days after a different ambush left five officers dead in Downtown Dallas.

"It's still unbelievable. You can't swallow something like that," said Bryan Davis, a barber in Oak Cliff.

Davis was one of a handful of barbershops Long visited in Dallas.

Davis and other barbers like Andre Hurd said Long referred to himself as "Cosmo" and was giving away copies of his holistic health book.

"When he came in here, I met him as a positive young man," said Hurd. "But what he did Sunday, he was terribly wrong. He killed innocent people."

Innocent people who were fathers, husbands and men who wanted to make their communities safer.

Tillman said Jackson was all of those and more.

"He just wanted to go out and do a good job. That's it. He just wanted to take care of people and make sure people were treated fairly," said Tillman.

The president for the Dallas Police Association said officers will likely soon travel to Baton Rouge to help officers.

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