BRProud.com

Deputies join community for Pack the Park event

BATON ROUGE, La. (BRPROUD) – Deputies with the East Baton Rouge Sheriff’s Office (EBRSO) remain vigilant in efforts to protect, serve, and simply get to know members of the local community.

Over the weekend, EBRSO officers participated in Pack the Park, which is a yearly anti-violence event that aims to restore unity and peace in the Baton Rouge area.

This year marked the 11th time Pack the Park took place, and those who participated gathered at BREC’s North Sherwood Community Park to kick off the event.

One of the event’s organizers Tarj Hamilton, was motivated to help create Pack the Park after she became a survivor of gun violence in 2007.

Hamilton told BRProud that one night when she and her husband were coming home from a concert, they were robbed.

Hamilton said, “It may have been around midnight when we got home.  When we got out of the car, two men ran up our driveway and robbed us.”

The criminals who targeted Hamilton and her husband were armed and shot the couple.

Both survived, but Tarj is paralyzed from the waist down.

She now works tirelessly to support projects like Pack the Park. Her goal is to curb senseless acts of violence in the Baton Rouge area in the hope that one day, no one else will have to experience what she and her husband lived through.

EBRSO took to its Facebook page after the event, expressing their support of Hamilton and members of the community who make efforts to bridge the communication gap between local law enforcement and residents.