MISSION — Police Chief Robert Dominguez feared, at times, that he’d never see Lt. Javier Ramon again.
He had good reason to fear. Ramon’s struggle with COVID-19 was touch and go, often critical and uncertain; but on Saturday, 173 days after being hospitalized with the virus, Javy came home.
He was met by the blare of sirens and flashing lights. Still on supplemental oxygen but with a smile on his face, Ramon waved out the window at the double column of law enforcement officers standing by to welcome him back to Mission.
It was a long-awaited homecoming, and one Dominguez says was little short of a miracle.
“The power of prayer has helped a lot and has helped his family a lot,” he said. “And the results are that he’s coming home.”
The leader of the department’s criminal investigative bureau, Dominguez says Ramon worked his way up through the ranks in the department, helping to build its K-9 unit.
“He’s always had that love of animals and has always supported our K-9 unit, and I applaud him for his efforts in helping to build that unit to the way we have it today,” he said.
Dominguez describes Ramon as a studious lawman and a leader in the department. The respect his fellow officers have for him made it all the more difficult when tested positive for the coronavirus on July 27.
Ramon had come down with symptoms of the virus just two days before. By August 3, he was admitted to the hospital in Mission, the first in a series of hospitals in the Rio Grande Valley and San Antonio where Ramon would spend the rest of the year fighting for his life and struggling to recover.
“I was talking to him and texting with him up to August the 19th,” Dominguez said. “And that’s unfortunately when he started having a lot of complications with the COVID-19 virus.”
The pandemic has had a particularly profound impact on the Mission Police Department. The day Ramon checked into the hospital for the first time was also the first day Officer Jorge Cabrera, also from Mission police, was hospitalized with the virus.
Three weeks later Cabrera was dead.
Dominguez says more than anything the two tragedies have pushed the men and women in his department closer together. Officers rallied around Cabrera’s family after his death, and they again rallied.
“More than anything a situation like this unites you as an organization,” he said. “Even today we still struggle with this virus, but we’ve been able to support each other through these last nine, 10 months that we’ve been fighting it.”
The community, Dominguez says, has rallied around the department as well.
“We’re really appreciative of our citizens and our business community. Again, they’ve never left us alone and I know they’ve helped us,” he said. “We’ve had a couple of fundraisers, businesses around the community had a bunch of fundraisers for him and his family, and we’re just glad to report that he’s finally coming home.”
Despite the support, the department’s struggle against the virus is continuing. There’s still officers quarantined at home recovering from the virus, Dominguez says, and others isolating because of an infected loved one — temporary gaps in the department’s ranks the chief hopes will stop popping up in the near future.
“It’s still a struggle, and that’s why we just ask the public to be careful,” he said. “Obviously we’re in the first stages of hopefully getting everybody vaccinated, but as you know it’s still a struggle.”
