Glendale police officer dies from COVID-19 complications
Aug 9, 2021, 12:12 PM | Updated: 2:16 pm
Glendale Officer Lonnie Durham (Photo via Glendale Chamber of Commerce Facebook)
(Photo via Glendale Chamber of Commerce Facebook)
PHOENIX – Glendale Police Officer Lonnie Durham died last week from COVID-19 complications, the department announced Monday.
Durham, who followed his father and brother into law enforcement, died Aug. 2. A private funeral for family and friends will be held Saturday.
He leaves behind a wife and four teenage children.
Durham joined the Glendale Police Department in 2008, a year after his brother Brent. Their father, Mark, served on the force for 30 years.
“During Officer Durham’s career here with the department he was awarded with both a ‘Medal of Valor’ and a ‘Lifesaving Award,’” the department said in an emailed statement.
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“He was a loyal servant to not only this community, but he was an ‘officer’s officer.’ Officer Durham treated everyone with respect and dignity and his loss leaves a hole not only in the department but in all of our hearts.”
According to a separate statement from the family, written by his brother, Durham was being treated for job-related PTSD and was going through the process of medical retirement when he was diagnosed with COVID-19.
He died before the medical retirement was completed, leaving “his wife and children without that much needed source of income,” the statement says.
Anybody wanting to make donations to assist the family can do so through a link set up by the Glendale Chamber of Commerce and included at the bottom of the family statement.
