A police officer put on leave by the San Francisco Police Department earlier this month for missing the city's November 1 vaccination deadline died battling COVID-19 on Saturday after being stricken with the virus just days earlier.
Officer Jack Nyce, 47, a 17-year-veteran of the department, died November 6 after testing positive for the virus four days prior, his wife Melissa Nyce told The San Francisco Chronicle on Monday.
'He loved being a cop,' Melissa told the outlet, adding that she had not taken a COVID-19 test after her husband's passing.
She also revealed that she was by her husband's side throughout the four-day ordeal until he succumbed to COVID-related complications in a San Francisco hospital. She declined to tell the paper whether her husband had been vaccinated or not.
The vice president of the San Francisco Police Officers Association, Lt. Tracy McCray, said Monday that Jack Nyce was on a 30-day stint of paid administrative leave after failing to meet the vaccination requirement for city employees by the November 1 deadline.
Officer Jack Nyce, 47, a 17-year-veteran of the department, died on November 6 after testing positive for COVID four days earlier
Nyce was memorialized by his fellow San Francisco officers after his sudden passing on November 6 - days after he was put on unpaid leave by the force for failing to meet the city's vaccine requirement for civic workers by the November 1 deadline
San Francisco officers were required to provide proof of vaccination by the city's November 1 deadline or face being put on paid - and eventually, unpaid - leave
The day after the deadline, on his first day of leave on November 2, Jack Nyce tested positive for the virus, his wife told The Chronicle.
Within four days, on November 6, the off-duty officer's symptoms grew so severe that an ambulance had to be called to the couple's San Francisco residence, and Jack Nyce had to be carted off to a nearby hospital, with his wife in tow.
He died that day at the hospital, his wife said, adding that she was at his bedside when he passed.
In a statement released Monday and provided to DailyMail.com on Wednesday, San Francisco Police Chief Bill Scott described Jack as a 'widely respected colleague' - but declined to divulge what caused the officer's death.
'It is with great sadness that I write to inform you that Officer Jack Nyce passed away on
