A 36-year veteran of the Houston Police Department was honored with a loving celebration Sunday after he died of COVID-19 complications last Friday, according to reports.
The body of Senior Police Officer Ernest Leal Jr., 60, who had been fighting a weekslong battle, was given a police escort from the hospital to the funeral home. "We have truly lost a man who defines what it means to be a public servant," Police Chief Art Acevedo said in a statement.
AMERICA TOGETHER: UPLIFTING IMAGES FROM ACROSS THE COUNTRY Leal began working in the county jail in 1984; in 1989 he transferred to the department's North Patrol Division, where he spent the rest of his life serving the city.