GREENSBORO, N.C. — Sergeant Phillip Dale Nix helped the Guilford County Family Justice Center become what it is today.
It is a place for domestic violence victims to get help and resources, along with those experiencing child abuse, sexual assault, elder abuse, stocking, and more.
It provides wraparound services and in the center is the Family Victims Unit.
Sergeant Nix was the supervisor of the family victims unit with the Greensboro Police Department. He was in that leadership role for six years and those who worked with him said it was his second home.
Catherine Johnson knew Nix well and has been the director at the center. She said Sergeant Nix was one of the most passionate professionals she had the opportunity to work with during her nearly 30 years of working in violence and abuse prevention.
"I've often introduced Sergeant Nix as the best cop that I know," Johnson said. "He is kind-hearted and he knew how to connect with the most vulnerable person that is coming in for help, but also with professionals that were doing this work every day."
Johnson said that Nix made it his mission to help those who were vulnerable in the community. Nix helped lead the high-risk team, working with the most vulnerable victims of domestic violence and helping reduce homicides.
"Sergeant Nix was our hero, and so it's been tough in the office," Johnson shared. "He was so well-liked, well-known, and well-connected. He is a foundational partner in our work here; those shoes will not be filled. This is a tragedy not only for the Family Justice Center but for our community because he was one of the top leaders in creating a safer community for everyone in Greensboro."
She said Nix's work went farther than the Triad. He spoke nationally at trainings, webinars, and even the International Family Justice Center Conference.
Johnson said he was a mentor to many.
"This still feels unbelievable," she said. "For a person who spent his career preventing crime for a person who over the past six years, invested his day in and day out to save people to say victims of domestic and sexual violence and the fact that his life was taken, he was killed. Just I think that's for us. Here is the thing that we just keep circling back around to is that we can't believe a public servant like this life was taken so senselessly."
There is a memorial for Nix at the justice center. Johnson said their mission of justice is only intensifying from here.
"We know that Sergeant Nix would say, 'Carry it on without me,' and so we have a responsibility to fulfill the mission that he believed in, to make sure that we protect the vulnerable and hold offenders accountable and that's what we're going to do," she said. "Just one day at a time, it's our strategy for now, but we have a charge to fulfill and that will be how we amplify his legacy for many, many years beyond."