Hundreds honor 43-year-old Florida police officer who died of COVID-19
Many have stared into the face of a killer but learned to mask their fears. But the 24 mournful notes of the famous bugle call was the undoing for many law enforcement officers attending a funeral for one of their own.
A little past 1 p.m. Friday, the sound of people crying broke the silence after taps had finished playing.
By the hundreds, somber law enforcement officers from all over South Florida gathered at a church to honor Coral Springs Sgt. Patrick Madison, who had died a week earlier from complications of COVID-19. Madison was just 43.
Madison was one of five South Florida law enforcement officers to die of COVID-19 in a span of seven days. Ernesto Bruna, a spokesman for the the Coral Springs Police Department, said his office did not want to disclose whether Madison was vaccinated.
Madison’s fight to battle the insidious disease that has killed 635,000 Americans began July 18. From his hospital bed, he was texting a good friend and fellow in his recruiting class Sgt. AJ King about making plans to celebrate King’s upcoming birthday.
For a month, Madison’s prognosis seemed hopeful and then on Aug. 17 it no longer was. King had to break the news to Madison’s 12-year-old son, Patrick “PJ” Madison Jr., that his dad had died on Aug. 20.
“The last month has been tough on everybody,” King told a crowd of hundreds in the Church by the Glades in Coral Springs.
King said he snuck into his dying friend’s hospital room assuring him that his son would forever have a family of hundreds of law enforcement officers and that it was OK to let go, and to pass.
Coral Springs Police Chief Clyde Parry got on bended knee and presented Madison’s son with the flag that draped his father’s coffin. Next Parry opened a small box and presented PJ with his father’s police badge. Madison served the department for 15 years.
A towering man of 6 feet 5 inches, Madison didn’t just embody strength, but equally, he embodied kindness, many said.
On the churches main stage was a massive fleur de lis in honor of Madison’s beloved New Orleans Saints Football Team. A native of Louisiana, Madison graduated from Southern University in Louisiana and A&M College. In addition to his son, he is also survived by his fiancée Hazel Mullings; his mother, Charlotte Madison; his brother, Carl Madison; and his sister, Deatreaus Johnson.
Madison came to Coral Springs after working in child protective investigations with the Broward Sheriff’s Office. His background in counseling and behavioral health served the department well in cases involving people in crisis, Parry said.
”He had a way with people,” Parry said.
Madison also served as a field training officer, helping teach young officers how to do their jobs. In 2012, he served as a school resource officer at Sawgrass Springs Middle School and loved it. But then there became a need a resource officer at Coral Springs High School, a place no one was eager to go. Madison stepped up and did it without complaint, Parry said.
Madison was promoted to sergeant in 2018, when he returned to road patrol, and was selected to supervise general investigations in 2020.
“Pat was a good soldier,” Parry said, “He put the department’s needs over personal comfort,” Parry said.
Eileen Kelley can be reached at 772-925-9193 or ekelley@sunsentinel.com. Follow on Twitter @reporterkell.
