A police lieutenant and father-of-three from Baker, Louisiana, died from complications of Covid-19 on August 13 – one day before his wedding.
Demarcus Dunn, 36, who was unvaccinated, had planned to wed his fiancée Francine in July 2020, but rescheduled the ceremony to August 14 due to the pandemic, Baker Police Chief Carl Dunn, told ABC News.
But Dunn tested positive for the virus on July 29 and was put on a ventilator on August 10. Carl Dunn, who is the victim's cousin, said that he did not know why the police lieutenant wasn’t vaccinated and it wasn’t a requirement of the department.
His death comes amid ongoing hesitancy about getting vaccinated among black Americans, many of whom say their reason lies in historical health care discrimination.
Louisiana has a wide gap in vaccination rates between black and white residents, with nearly two times as many white people vaccinated (59 percent) as compared to the black population (31 percent).
Days after Dunn's death, Louisiana hit its all-time highest number of Covid-19 cases with 13,370 recorded on August 16.
Demarcus Dunn (left), 36, a police lieutenant from Baker, Louisiana, died from complications of Covid-19 on August 13 – one day before his wedding. He is pictured above with his cousin and Baker Police Chief Carl Dunn
Dunn planned to wed his fiancée Francine on August 14, but tested positive for the virus on July 29
Carl Dunn said that he did not know why the police lieutenant wasn’t vaccinated and it wasn’t a requirement of the department
Dunn, a father of three, was also a US Air Force veteran
‘It was disturbing to me that he hadn't gotten it [the vaccine] and I didn't know for sure he hadn't gotten it 'til it was all over with,’ Carl told ABC News.
Two days before testing positive for the virus, Dunn posted a video on his Facebook page from a large, maskless party on a boat in Jamaica.
He is seen dancing, also without a mask, in the video, captioned ‘The turn up was real.’ It is not clear if that is where he contracted the virus, however.
Dunn, who is black, had symptoms including coughing, a headache and trouble breathing, but Carl Dunn said he talked to him ‘every day and he always sounded upbeat . . . even the day that he went on the ventilator, I talked to him that morning, and he told me that he wasn't feeling bad," the chief told ABC News.
‘I know he was a fighter and strong-willed. I just kept telling myself he was going to make it and I kept assuring the family that I knew he was going to make it.’
