BATON ROUGE - The community will say its final goodbyes to East Baton Rouge Sheriff's Deputy Nick Tullier on Tuesday.

The deputy survived nearly six years after he was shot in the head during an ambush that killed three other law enforcement officers.

“As a parent, you're not supposed to outlive your child, but this is about Nick and giving him the respect he deserved,” Nick’s mom, Mary Tullier, said.

“Nick wanted to live, he wanted to live for his kids. These two boys were the world to him,” Nick's father, James said.

And he meant a lot to his sons. One of them shared what he loved about his father.

“A man that goes out of his way to help each and every person in the community,” Gage, Nick's youngest son, said.

James says Nick was able to communicate with them while he was in the hospital through a letter board.

“He would point the laser at the different letters, spell words, and then hit space, spell the next word and he was writing sentences. It was hard to keep up with him. I couldn't keep up with him,” James said.

Nick was also working to regain some mobility.

“Those therapists had Nick able to drive his own power chair. There's video of Nick chasing Ashley, one of his therapists there. She was dodging around him,” James said.

His mom said Nick understood a lot.

“He accomplished a great deal and was fully aware of where he was, what was going on and what happened to him,” Mary said.

Nick's funeral is open to the public. The way his dad said he'd want it.

“In respect to Nick, it's all open,” James said.