GREENSBORO, N.C. — Sergeant Philip Dale Nix's service with the Greensboro Police Department has been well-documented over the past few days.
His service to Guilford County started before he got his badge. He spent time as a 911 operator, with Guilford County EMS.
WFMY News 2 spoke with a Supervisor at Guilford Metro 911, April Loftis, who has been working at the call center for over two decades now. One of the first people she met there was Sgt. Nix. She was trained by him for some time and said he was a person who genuinely cared about public service.
When Loftis first heard Sgt. Nix lost his life in a senseless tragedy, she could not believe something like this would happen to her former colleague.
She said Sgt. Nix started working as a dispatcher back in 1998 here in Guilford County, Loftis started two years later in 2000. She said during her time training under him, she learned quickly that he was very meticulous at his job, that he always knew what to do but that he was also kind, she says he would be a listening ear for anyone who needed it.
"You don't want it to happen to anybody and it happens every day but, you know, when it's somebody that you worked personally with or you worked closely with at one point, even if it was 20 years ago — it hits home," Loftis said.
Sgt. Nix lost his life after he was shot while trying to stop a crime at a Sheetz gas station.
Loftis said Sgt. Nix took great pride in being an officer, always walking tall and wearing his badge with honor, "he was very proud to be a police officer but he never forgot where he came from, he always came back to visit."
Although Loftis was shocked to hear Sgt. Nix had lost his life this way, she was not shocked by his decision to intervene and try to stop a crime from taking place, "they see something, they do something, I mean... it's just the nature of what they do; it's the nature of what they're taught; you know, it's second nature."
Showing that even until the end, Sgt. Nix was all about protecting and serving the people of Greensboro.