Milwaukee police, community mourn death of beloved sergeant Jackson
Troy Jackson came to the hospital, comic books in hand.
He wanted to cheer up the son of his friend and fellow Milwaukee police officer Shemia Watts when the eighthgrader was hospitalized with meningitis.
He had done the same years earlier when Watts herself was recovering in the hospital, toting chocolate-covered strawberries and a handful of magazines for her.
“He showed up,” Watts said. “Some people you can talk to them all the time, they don’t necessarily show up in those moments.”
Jackson, a Milwaukee police sergeant and father of three, died Sunday after suffering a stroke. He was 48. In a statement released Monday, the Police Department offered condolences to his family and added that “he will be missed by the entire MPD family.”
“He understood the importance of building up relationships in our community,” said Sheronda Grant, a friend and colleague who works as a police lieutenant. “He just brought a lot of realness and he was true to who he was and he was true to his profession.”
Jackson grew up in Milwaukee and graduated from Shorewood High School in 1991. He served in the Air Force and then worked as a Milwaukee County sheriff’s deputy before joining the Milwaukee Police Department in 2002.
His wife, Sonja Jackson, met him when he was in the police academy and still laughs when she recalls that night. They were at a bar on Fond du Lac Avenue and had exchanged phone numbers. As she left, he jokingly asked if she needed a police escort home for safety. She declined.
It was a 10-minute drive to her house. When she parked in the alley, she saw him. She got out and yelled at him, demanding to know why he had followed her.
“I’m not following you,” she remembered him replying. “I’m going home. I live right there.”
He pointed three houses down the
block.
On family vacations, Jackson preferred to drive to their destinations. As his older children graduated high school, he began a new tradition with his youngest son, Tory, to take road trips during spring break. They went to Seattle, Niagara Falls and the Grand Canyon.
“Troy was an all-around good genuine person. A great father. Not a good father, a great father,” said Homer Blow, a Milwaukee radio personality who has been friends with Jackson for decades.
“His son has experienced the world like some people will never get to,” he said, adding: “The world needs more men like him.”
Tommie Myles met Jackson before their freshman year of high school during football practice. They’ve been friends ever since, a bond sealed through music from when they first rapped together at a high school talent show and continuing to their long-running radio show playing all genres from the ‘80s and ‘90s.
As word of his death spread on Monday, Myles got a phone call from a woman whose house had burned down in April. The first person to call her and send money to help, she said, was Jackson.
Days before his stroke, Jackson had visited the classroom of Myles’ ex-wife, a teacher, to donate shoes and hats for kids at the school.
“That was without anybody knowing that had happened,” Myles said.
His friends recalled how he loved fishing — using it to relax and giving away his catch —and how he relished being a contrarian.
“It was always fun debating with him, whether you were with him or against him,” said Michael Washington, a retired homicide detective. Jackson cheered for the Green Bay Packers and Milwaukee Bucks but was ruthless when it came to critiquing the teams.
“People would ask ‘are you really a fan or not?’ and he would say, ‘Yeah, I just keep it real. I call it like I see it,’” Washington said.
Jackson had experienced a series of recent health challenges, his wife said.
In September 2020, he suffered an aortic artery tear and was flown by helicopter to St. Luke’s Hospital. He pulled through and returned to light-duty work this year in the police property division. Then in August, he suffered a stroke and experienced another one on Thursday.
Since his death, dozens and dozens of tributes have been shared on Facebook along with photos of Jackson.
“He touched a lot of people’s lives,” Sonja said.