A former Connecticut State Police trooper who was a Sandy Hook first responder died of COVID-19
"He was the bravest person I know."
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A retired Connecticut State Police trooper who was a first responder to the Sandy Hook Elementary School shooting has died of COVID-19.
Ret. Trooper First Class Patrick Dragon, of Brooklyn, Connecticut, died Saturday at Hartford Hospital after contracting the coronavirus, State Police said in a statement Monday.
Dragon, who retired from the State Police in February 2018, was deputy chief of the East Brooklyn Fire Department at the time of his death, according to the department.
“Patrick served as a dedicated member of the department for 34 years …. We cannot express how deeply he will be missed and wish to extend our deepest condolences to the Dragon family,” fire officials said in a statement.
https://www.facebook.com/EastBrooklynFireDept/posts/3940406509325500
According to State Police, Dragon entered the agency’s Training Academy in 1998 and upon graduating, served in “Troop D in Danielson, as a Resident Trooper in the town of Sterling, as a detective in the Eastern District Major Crime Squad, and as a detective in the Fire and Explosion Investigation Unit.”
Dragon was a first responder to the Sandy Hook Elementary School shooting in Newtown that left 28 dead — including 20 children — and two injured on Dec. 14, 2012, police said.
Michele Hearn, Dragon’s sister, told NBC Connecticut her brother, 50, was “larger than life.”
“He was the bravest person I know,” she said.
Dragon tested positive for coronavirus sometime around Dec. 12, subsequently quarantined, and returned to work, his family told the news station. His condition soon deteriorated and he was brought to the hospital on Dec. 27, where he died six days later.
Dragon also worked as a dispatcher for the Foster Police Department in Rhode Island after retiring from the State Police.
“The Foster Police Department has lost one of its own,” Foster Police Chief David J. Breit said in a statement, according to NBC Connecticut. “There are not enough words to describe the kind of person that Patrick was.”
https://www.facebook.com/connecticutstatepolice/posts/2895703087325690
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