State trooper dies after ‘lengthy battle’ with coronavirus, NC highway patrol says
A state trooper and firefighter in North Carolina died Thursday after a months-long battle with the coronavirus, officials said.
Timothy “Lee” Howell worked for the North Carolina State Highway Patrol and the Sandy Bottom Fire Department in eastern North Carolina, according to statements released on Facebook. He died at 2:39 p.m. at UNC Medical Center in Chapel Hill, Colonel Glenn M. McNeill said.
“It is with great sadness that I inform you of the passing of First Sergeant Timothy ‘Lee’ Howell (A911) after a courageous, lengthy battle with COVID-19,” McNeill wrote in a statement posted on the state highway patrol’s Facebook page.
Howell was assigned to the Motor Carrier Enforcement Unit for Troop A in Greenville, according to the Pitt County Sheriff’s Office. He was also well known among residents of Sandy Bottom in Lenoir County, the fire department said.
“Lee joined the Sandy Bottom Fire Department in order to help us better serve his community and his passion for the fire service grew instantaneously as showed in his willingness and passion for learning,” Sandy Bottom Volunteer Fire and Rescue said in a statement on Facebook.
According to the state highway patrol, Howell is survived by his mother Burma Howell, daughters Bailey Owens and Olivia Howell, brother Lynn Howell and girlfriend Krystal Westbrook.
Westbrook, who goes by Krystal Gray on Facebook, posted near-daily updates after Howell was admitted to the hospital with COVID-19 in mid-November. He was put on a ventilator Dec. 1 and transferred to UNC just before Christmas, she wrote. Westbrook described the days leading up to his death as “stressful” and “horrendous.”
“At 2:39 p.m. my best boy went to be with our Lord and his daddy,” she said in a Facebook post Thursday. “Our hearts are absolutely broken. We will absolutely never be the same.”
