LOCAL: A Broward sheriff ’s dispatcher has died from virus.
Mother of four, age 41, was diagnosed April 2 with the coronavirus
A dispatcher for the Broward Sheriff’s Office has died of the new coronavirus, the first known dispatcher to die of the disease in Florida.
Nikima Thompson, a mother of four whose own mother is also battling COVID-19, died Monday night after being diagnosed with the virus April 2. She was 41.
“We have suffered another loss,” Broward Sheriff Gregory Tony said during a news conference Tuesday, just a month after the agency lost one of its deputies to the disease.
“This agency is suffering along with this community, but we still continue to serve,” Tony said. “Although we are shaken, we are not broken. Thank you and keep us all in your prayers.”
Thompson, a 16-year veteran at the agency, was on a ventilator, but her family made the decision to remove the breathing machine Monday night when her organs began to fail, the sheriff said.
As of Tuesday, 104 employees at the Sheriff ’s Office have been confirmed positive and 74 employees are being monitored.
The tally of Broward Sheriff’s dispatchers who have tested positive for the virus is now at 44, said Broward Sheriff’s Sgt. Anthony Marciano, president of the BSO unit of the Federation of Public Employees’ union. That’s more than triple the number of dispatchers who tested positive on April 5, when there were only 13.
Deputy Shannon Bennett died April 3, a week after being diag
nosed with COVID-19. Bennett, 39, was a 12-year veteran of the force and had worked as a school resource officer at Deerfield Beach Elementary School since January 2019.
Around the time of Bennett’s death, union leaders said they were worried the agency didn’t have enough masks, gloves and other supplies to keep their members safe.
But since then, more masks have come in, Marciano said. Dispatchers, who tend to work in close quarters, are required to wear them while working.
And to help prevent the spread of the virus, plexiglass has been installed at their workstations at all three call centers.
On Tuesday, the sheriff referred to dispatchers as the “unsung heroes” who the public first encounters when they call for help.
“Like her colleagues, Nikima often served as a lifeline, connecting 911 callers to public safety responders,” Tony said. “Her loss is deeply felt by all of her BSO family.”
Thompson was born in Miami and graduated from Miami Norland Senior High School in 1996. She joined the Sheriff’s Office in September 2003 and was assigned to the North Region communications center in Coconut Creek. Her last day at work was March 26.
Thompson is survived by her mother, Geraldine Wilson, sister Gina Stewart, and her four children: Aran, 22; Isaiah, 21; Justin, 16; and Heaven, 14.
“Just a beautiful family,” said agency spokeswoman Veda Coleman-Wright. “We are praying they will be able to pull through this.”
Because Thompson died in the line of duty, the Sheriff’s Office organized what Tony called an “honor transport” of squad cars to accompany her body Tuesday afternoon from Delray Medical Center to the Fred Hunter Funeral Home in Hollywood.
When the procession drove past the communications center in Coconut Creek where Thompson worked, employees were waiting outside to pay their respects, Coleman-Wright said.
Funeral arrangements are pending.