Community Mourns Covid Death of Officer

WAAY-31's Beken Terry discusses the recent death of a Police Officer at the hands of Covid-19.

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This is a small shoals community is devastated after one of its police officers died of coronavirus complications last night.

Yesterday afternoon he was unresponsive.

They couldn't resuscitate him.

I'm sorry.

Sgt.

Walter johnson was with the st.

Florian police department for 10 years.

He was a state trooper before that.

Thank you for joining us.

I'm dan shaffer.

And i'm najahe sherman.

We want to go straight to waay 31's breken terry.

She spoke to the mayor of st.

Florian and johnson's co-workers about their loss.

Breken?

Honestly, they are still in shock.

Johnson got sick last week and went into the hospital over the weekend.

He even spoke with several of his brothers in blue saying he was feeling better just hours before he died.

Terry- for something that sudden that we weren't expecting it's something hard to take.

Police officer jonathan terry didn't expect to cover half his badge this week in honor of his friend and co-worker sgt.

Walter johnson.

Terry- we saw eachother everyday.

It's still a shock.

We're still trying to understand what happened.

Most of us just talked to him a few days ago.

It's even harder to look at johnsons desk.

He left it like he'd be walking in at any moment.

His reading glasses and pictures of family and a cross.

<connolly- somebody said something about replacing him.

We can't replace him.

We can get someone to take his place but there is no replacing a guy like walter.

A man that had the love of his whole community.

He was a pastor too at a local church a godly man who loved his family.

Connolly- if you had a conversation with him he was going to show you pictures of his grandkids.

He loved his family.

He even did a zoom meeting for one of his granddaughters kindergarten class.

While this department and community struggles with johnson's loss their prayers are with his family, who he adored.

Terry- we plan on giving him the farewell he deserves.

Really the best way to honor him is to come to work everyday and do our job the way he did.

Give people respect and go home every night and love your family.

Something else i learned about johnson today- he didn't take a paycheck for preaching at a local church.

He did it out of the love of his church and people he served.

In st.

Florian bt waay31.

There will be a memorial service by state troopers for sergeant johnson tomorrow night at mcfarland park in florence.

The memorial starts at 6:30 in the