Retired Seminole police officer dies from coronavirus after over 40 years of service
_fitted.png "Calvin “Cal” Harrison, 78, died late Friday night after testing positive from novel coronavirus. He recently retired after serving over 40 years as a police officer, most of it with the Seminole Police Department.")
A recently retired Seminole Police officer died Friday night after testing positive for the novel coronavirus, police said.
Calvin “Cal” Harrison, 78, has been an officer for most his life. He started his policing career in 1978 and retired in February. On March 27, Harrison was hospitalized at Cleveland Clinic Hospital in Weston and was being treated for coronavirus symptoms.
He died late Friday night.
During Harrison’s many years of police work, he made headlines in 1995 when he was shot in the head responding to a woman being raped and robbed in her Hollywood home, the Miami Herald reported in 1995.
Harrison was shot in the temple and recovered after a delicate three-hour surgery where a bullet and bone were removed from his brain.
At the time, Harrison told the South Florida Sun Sentinel, “The last thing I remember is the shot and going to the ground. I should be in a grave right now. There has to be a God. If it wasn’t for him, I’d be a dead man.”
After recovering from the shooting, Harrison continued his career with the Seminole Police Department at the Brighton and Fort Pierce Seminole Reservations, but has served at several Seminole reservations around the state, including Hollywood, Tampa and Immokalee.
“Cal spent over 28 years with the Seminole Tribe and was well-known in the Seminole community and in law enforcement circles,” said William Latchford, Executive Director for Public Safety of the Seminole Tribe of Florida. “He was always a survivor, but sadly, he couldn’t survive the coronavirus.”
Harrison lived in Pompano Beach and is survived by his sons, Calvin J. Harrison, of Sunrise, and, James Harrison, of Boynton Beach, and one brother, David Harrison, of Ohio.
This story was originally published April 18, 2020 at 5:44 PM.
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