By Bob Hennelly

Courtesy of InsiderNJ

They came from all over New Jersey and reflected the state’s diversity yet all of them shared a desire to protect the public’s safety. As a consequence, they paid the ultimate price for keeping that commitment in the brutal onslaught that was COVID which hit an unprepared nation hard.

In the first wave, the world’s wealthiest nation scrambled for basic PPE like N-95 masks, and we had to ration them while we were forced to improvise.

The state’s public safety community, including the unions that represent the professional first responder workforce, gathered today at Sayreville’s Epic Church to honor the 45 first responders who died during the pandemic that killed 1.1 million Americans and at least 36,000 civilians in New Jersey.

Throughout the country, workers who staffed congregant living facilities like prisons were particularly vulnerable to the highly infectious virus. In fact, New Jersey’s Department of Corrections lost seven employees including Maria and Dwayne Gibbs, who were husband and wife.

According to Anthony Attrino’s reporting for NJAdvance Media back in April 2020 Senior Corrections Officer Maria Gibbs, 47-year-old married mother of four. She was the third corrections officer to die from COVID that at that point had sickened 427 workers in the state prison system. 16 state prison inmates had died.

“She had been doing well for a while, but then it took a turn for the worse and she was on a ventilator,” William Sullivan, PBA Local 105 told the newspaper. “Her body gave out from all the treatments.”

According to Attrino’s reporting, the fallen officer’s Facebook post declared “I can’t stay home. I’m a correctional officer.”

Gibbs’ husband Dwayne was also diagnosed with COVID-19 but had not developed symptoms, according to Sullivan.  Dwayne, also with the New Jersey Department of Corrections, would die from COVID in August of 2022, just a couple weeks shy of his 53rd birthday.

Right after Maria Gibbs died, Sullivan told the newspaper PBA members were “demanding widespread and free testing of both workers and inmates at all of New Jersey’s prisons, whether they are symptomatic or not noting that they were paying $52 each for coronavirus testing.”

“We’re giving it to each other,” Sullivan told NJAdvance Media. “Officers walk along a 3- or 4-foot-wide corridor up and down a tier with 90 inmates in cells with open bars breathing on them and each other.”

Four employees with the New Jersey State Police died from COVID including Latasha Andrews, 33, who had been employed for 14 years as a member of the civilian security staff.

Also in April 2020, Rebecca Panico reported for NJAdvance Media that in honoring Andrews , Governor Murphy disclosed her mother, grandfather and uncle had all died from COVID-19.

“It’s unimaginable,” Murphy said at the time. The governor described Andrews as a “kind and beautiful soul, who was always the first to offer help to those in need. Known by her family and friends for her eye for fashion and her passion for traveling, she was always ready to share an adventure with them.”

At that point New Jersey had recorded 6,770 COVID deaths.

Paterson Firefighter and EMT Israel Tolentino was also just 33 when he died in March 2020 from complications from COVID that had been exposed to on the job.

He left behind his wife and two children.

“It fulfilled his urge to serve others,” his wife Maria Vazquez told NJAdvance Media’s Rodrigo Torrejon. “He was so selfless. It drew me closer to him. It drew everyone closer to him.”

Tolentino had also served as a volunteer “at the fire department and first aid squad in West Paterson, now Woodland Park. And for years, he was also a member of the Monmouth Ocean Hospital Service Corporation (MONOC) and at Cardinal Ambulance Corps, in Totowa,” according to the newspaper. After moving to Passaic, he volunteered “as an EMT and as a member of the city’s community emergency response team, part of its Office of Emergency Management.”

“Izzy cared more about everyone first,” Cesar Perez, an EMS supervisor in Passaic, told the newspaper. “I have been so lucky to have been graced by his presence, his intoxicating smile, and the love he imparted. I have lost a ‘grandson,’ a brother Marine, a truest friend. I consider myself fortunate to have had the times I spent by his side.”

In a phone interview with InsiderNJ, New Jersey Police Benevolent Association President Pat Colligan said even as he and his staff were in the final stages of planning tomorrow’s memorial service, he came across an additional name of a fallen officer who had died from COVID.

“This all started for me after the first of the line-of-duty deaths happened and because of the public health concerns we couldn’t have a real memorial service in person, so we had to meet in our cars in a parking lot near the home of the fallen officer and just drive by his house and there was the urn with his remains on the front lawn,” Colligan said. “That’s when I said to myself this is not the way we pay our final respects to our officers.”

The solemn occasion, which provides “a Proper Tribute” for the fallen, comes just two days before Worker’s Memorial Day that’s celebrated on April 28. According to the national AFL-CIO, that was the date in 1971 that as a nation we resolved that “every worker” had “the right to a safe job—a fundamental right” yet “each year, thousands of workers are killed and millions more suffer injury and illness because of dangerous working conditions that are preventable.”

To this day we don’t have a full accounting of the price paid by our healthcare professionals, first responders, transport workers and other essential workers who had to work out in the world for the many months before the vaccines were deployed.

The good will that was expressed in the spontaneous banging of the pot and pans for our essential workers has so faded that Trenton appears to have forgotten entirely about the $100 million proposal for hazard pay that several jurisdictions, including Connecticut have already enacted.

No doubt, it will take us a while to process the collective trauma we all have experienced. What we owe those that died during COVID in service to us all is to memorialize their sacrifice, not just to honor them, but to hold ourselves and future generations accountable for not being prepared.

In Memoriam:

Latasha Andrews-New Jersey State Police

Luis Andujar-Cumberland City Corrections

Robert Bell-Burlington County Corrections

Vincent Butler-New Jersey Department of Corrections

Irving Callender III-Newark Police Department

Richard Campbell-Edison Division of Fire

Michael Clegg-Newark Police Department

Michael Connors-Newark Police Department

Zeb Craig-Hudson County Corrections

Christopher Cronin-Old Bridge Police Department

Gerard Eick-Ocean County Prosecutor’s Office

Rocco Ferraro-New Jersey State Police

David Formeza-Perth Amboy Police Department

Daniel Francis-Newark Police Department

Tolbert Furr-Newark Police Department

Maria & Dwayne Gibbs– New Jersey Department of Corrections

Joseph Goertz-Lakewood Police Department

Matthew Horton-Ocean County Sheriff’s Department

Vincent Intiso-East Orange Fire Department

Edward Jamandron-New Jersey Department of Corrections

Daniel Krupa-New Jersey Department of Corrections

Brian McAdams Sr.-Newark Police Department

Robert McCormack-New Jersey Department of Corrections

Richard T. McKnight-Newark Police Department

Robert Miller-Clifton Police Department

Hector Moya-Newark Police Department

Alterek Patterson-Bedminister Police Department

Al Mustafa Pearson-Essex County Corrections

Nelson Perdomo-New Jersey Department of Corrections

James Pearl-Bloomfield Police Department

John Phelan-Paterson Police Department

Matthew Razukas-New Jersey State Police

Charles Roberts-Glen Ridge Police Department

Alex Roberto-Union City Police Department

Julius Sabo-New Jersey State Police

Francesco Scorpo-Paterson Police Department

Marcus Thomas-Newark Police Department

Israel Tolentino-Passaic Fire Department

Matthew Vogel-Hudson County Sheriff’s

Bernard Wadell Sr.-Hudson County Corrections

Gary Walker-Bloomingdale Police Department

Lowery Ware-Department of Homeland Security

Eric Whitaker-New Jersey Department of Corrections

Shawn Williams-Hudson County Corrections