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Benny Napoleon, a Detroit-area sheriff who spent decades in Motor City law enforcement and whose police chief brother defeated COVID-19 earlier this year, has succumbed to the disease. He was 65 years old.
The Wayne County Sheriff died Thursday evening, a month after being placed on a ventilator, at Henry Ford Hospital, local media reported.
Wayne County Sheriff Benny Napoleon in an interview with Reuters at his campaign headquarters in Detroit, Michigan, in 2013.
(Reuters / Rebecca Cook)
“Benny still had so much life to live; our community has once again lost someone greater than life to this vicious pandemic,” Michigan Attorney General Dana Nessel tweeted Thursday night. “My heart goes out to Benny’s family. It was an honor and a privilege to call him my sheriff.
Governor Gretchen Whitmer said she was “heartbroken”, calling Napoleon a “dear friend”.
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“Sheriff Napoleon’s love for the people he served has been returned over and over again. His quick laugh, his enthusiastic partnership and his candid advice are what I will miss the most,” she tweeted.
Napoleon’s public service career began with the Detroit Police Department in the 1970s. He later served as its chief and became the Wayne County Sheriff over ten years ago.
In 2013, he ran for mayor in Detroit, losing to Mayor Mike Duggan, who told the Detroit Free Press on Friday that the career police officer had been brave.
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“I can’t think of a leader in this city who was more loved and admired than Benny,” he told the newspaper. “He was born in the city … and loved Detroit as much as anyone I’ve ever known.”
Detroit’s political pillar has also garnered respect from national lawmakers. Democratic Senator Gary Peters and Rep. Rashida Tlaib – both representing Michigan – congratulated the late sheriff on Twitter.
The Wayne County Sheriff’s Office has already lost members to COVID-19. More than 200 members have tested positive for the disease, and three MPs and a commander have died.
Napoleon’s brother Hilton, the police chief of nearby Highland Park, spent 71 days in a hospital with the coronavirus, according to WJBK, the Fox-owned television station in Detroit. In a sad twist of fate, four of the family’s five siblings contracted the disease.
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“He did everything he could to not catch this,” Hilton Napoleon told the station. “But being a public servant … you can try to protect yourself as best you can, but this virus is very contagious and very deadly. We are just asking for prayers for our family so that we can get through this.”
Napoleon, the son of a minister, spent part of his time coaching Little League Baseball, PAL basketball, and served on the boards of other youth programs to keep kids out. indulge in crime.
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