Nassau County Police Officer Charles “Chuck” Vroom, who was assigned to the 3rd Precinct in Williston Park, died on Sept. 12 due to complications of COVID-19. Vroom was 52 and was with the department for 17 years.
He was the first Nassau police officer to die from the coronavirus.
The department’s Facebook page said: “The Nassau County Police Department mourns the loss of Police Officer Charles C. Vroom IV … Police Officer Vroom had been with the Department since 2004 and was assigned to the 3rd Precinct. Our thoughts and prayers are with Officer Vroom’s family. The Nassau County Police Department will never forget his service to the Department and the people of Nassau County.”
Vroom’s funeral was held Monday at O.B. Davis Funeral Homes in Miller Place, according to the department.
At the service, Vroom was posthumously promoted to detective first grade by Commissioner Patrick Ryder, he said in a tweet.
The 3rd Precinct has also organized a Fund the First campaign to help cover costs of the funeral. According to the page, Vroom began his career in the NYPD assisting the recovery efforts at ground zero. The fund has raised over $25,000 from 245 donors.
Across the nation, COVID-19 was the leading cause of death in the line of duty among law enforcement officers in the first six months of the year, accounting for 71 deaths, according to a report by the National Law Enforcement Officers Memorial Fund.
More than 90 percent of Nassau County adults had received at least one dose of the coronavirus vaccine by last week, according to state Department of Health statistics.
The figure, which is the second-highest among the 40 most populated counties in the United States, is more than 11 percent higher than the state’s average of 79.2 percent of adults with at least one shot. Nationwide, nearly 76 percent of adults at least 18 years old have received one shot.
Police officials did not say whether Vroom had been vaccinated.
He was born Dec. 6, 1968, in Port Jefferson, and is survived by a son, Sean.
