A 47-year-old Navy reservist and former Ada County sheriff’s deputy died Monday while hospitalized with COVID-19-related complications, according to the Navy Times.
Navy Reserve Master-at-Arms 1st Class Allen Hillman, a Boise native, was a member of the Navy Reserve Volunteer Training Unit in Boise, according to The Associated Press.
Hillman began working with the Sheriff’s Office in the 1990s, according to his LinkedIn page, and he left his Ada County employment in 2019, according to Patrick Orr, a sheriff’s spokesperson.
Gary Raney, Ada County’s sheriff from 2005 until 2015, told the Idaho Statesman by phone that Hillman was as a deputy at the jail and held other related jobs.
“He was the sort of law enforcement officer we would all want,” Raney said. “He was quiet, he was calm. … I think he was an inspiration to people around him.
“He was very well thought of, well-respected. Just a good human being and a good deputy sheriff.”
COVID-19 cases are surging in Idaho and hospital beds are again filling up, something public health officials are trying to address, and have tied to the spread of the highly contagious delta variant and the state’s sorry vaccination rate, which is below 50%.
It is unknown whether Hillman had received the COVID-19 vaccine.
The AP reported that fewer than 30 military deaths have been connected to the virus, but there have been nearly 206,000 total cases within the military as of July 21. Since early June, the number of active COVID-19 cases among sailors has risen from less than 250 to more than 800, according to the AP.
A spokesperson for the U.S. Navy could not immediately be reached for comment.
On Saturday, Defense Secretary Lloyd Austin said that more than 70% of military personnel have gotten at least one dose of a vaccine.
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