Deputy dies after battle with COVID-19

By KETV Staff

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    BURT COUNTY, Nebraska (KETV) — The Burt County Sheriff’s Office is mourning the loss of one of its own.

Deputy Justin Smith died Wednesday after being on life support battling COVID-19.

Smith also served as the police chief for Decatur, Nebraska, and was in the U.S. Army Reserve.

The Burt County Board of Supervisors has requested that all flags in Burt County be flown at half-staff to honor his memory.

Smith leaves behind a wife and children.

A man with a servant’s heart. That’s how Burt County Emergency Management Director Andrew Donawa describes his friend and co-worker.

“That is what he loved doing was being a community police officer, and going out and showing people how good police officers are and how he is just there to help them and assist them and however he can,” Donawa said.

When he wasn’t working as a deputy here in Burt County, he was in a different uniform as the chief of police in Decatur.

“A very intelligent young man. Nice guy. He was very eager to help anybody. And so that’s that’s pretty much who Justin was,” Donawa said.

Donawa said it was at the end of June when he saw Smith for the last time.

They were putting new trauma kits in all of the cars, days later things took a devastating turn.

Donawa said, “The sheriff called me on the Fourth of July, and said that Justin had been diagnosed with COVID, and that he was admitted to the hospital.”

From there, he says things happened fast and Smith was transferred to Nebraska Medicine in Omaha.

He died on Wednesday.

“It’s a very hard loss like I said he was the police chief in Decatur. He was a deputy here, and it was a hard loss for the whole community,” Donawa said.

On Thursday night, a black cloth was draped over the door of the Burt County Sheriff’s Office, their badges covered with a thin black line.

Now as they prepare to say goodbye to Smith, they’re doing everything they can to be there for his wife and kids.

Donawa said, “They are a strong family, strong family. They’re going to need some support, you know, some, some love and care. And that’s what we’re here for.”

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