Benny Napoleon, a Detroit area sheriff who spent decades in the Motor City Police Department and whose police chief brother overcame COVID-19 earlier this year, succumbed to the disease. He was 65.
The Wayne County sheriff died Thursday night, a month after being placed on a ventilator, at Henry Ford Hospital, local media reported.
Wayne County Sheriff Benny Napoleon during an interview with Reuters at his campaign headquarters in Detroit, Michigan, in 2013.
(Reuters / Rebecca Cook)
“Benny 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 late Thursday night. My heart goes out to Benny’s family. It was an honor and a privilege to call him my sheriff. ”
Gov. Gretchen Whitmer said she was “heartbroken” and called Napoleon a “best friend.”
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Sheriff Napoleon’s love for the people he served was reciprocated many times over. His quick laugh, enthusiastic partnership and forthright counsel is what I will miss the most, ”she tweeted.
Napoleon’s career in public service began in the 1970s with the Detroit Police Department. He later served as chief and became the Wayne County sheriff more than a decade ago.
In 2013, he ran for Detroit Mayor and lost to Mayor Mike Duggan, who told the Detroit Free Press on Friday that the law enforcement officer had been brave.
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“I can’t think of a leader in this town 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.”
The mainstay of Detroit’s politics also garnered respect from national lawmakers. Democrats Sen. Gary Peters and Rep. Rashida Tlaib – both representing Michigan – praised the late sheriff on Twitter.
The Wayne County Sheriff’s Office has previously lost members to COVID-19. More than 200 members tested positive for the disease and three deputies and a commander died.
Napoleon’s brother Hilton, the police chief at nearby Highland Park, spent 71 days in a hospital with the coronavirus, according to WJBK, Fox’s Detroit TV station. In a sad turn of fate, four of the family’s five siblings have contracted the disease.
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“He has done everything he can to avoid catching this,” Hilton Napoleon told the station. “But because he’s a civil servant … you can try to protect yourself as best you can, but this virus is very contagious and very deadly. We’re just asking for prayers for our family to get through this. ”
Napoleon, the son of a minister, spent some of his free time coaching Little League baseball, PAL basketball, and serving on the boards of other youth-focused programs to keep children out of crime.