Support for fallen deputy comes from Knox County, FBI, Homeland Security and NY Yankees
GALESBURG — The family of Knox County Sheriff’s Deputy Nick Weist will continue to receive his salary for one year from the date of his death, after an unanimous vote from the Knox County Board on Wednesday, May 25.
Chairman of the Knox County Board Jared Hawkinson introduced the measure and said that state statutes provide compensation to the families of officers killed in the line of duty, but that those compensations can be delayed due to documentation hold-ups.
The measure passed by the county board intends to prevent any further interruption to the family, Hawkinson said, and covers Weist's salary retroactively from the date he died on April 29.
The chairman said that the measure will provide Weist’s family his salary for a year or until the Death in Line of Duty Act comes into play, whichever happens first.
“This is just one of the least amount of things we could do to help fill that void and make sure that the family is taken care of,” Hawkinson said. “To me, the salary piece is just a drop in the bucket for what Deputy Weist gave not only for his community, but the sacrifice that he gave for his family and his community.”
Weist is survived by his wife and two children.
Knox County Sheriff David Clague said that the Fraternal Order of the Police had originally reached out to him to see about getting a measure to provide Weist's salary to his family on the board's agenda.
"I'm very thankful that the county board did do what they voted on. It shows a deep respect from the county board to law enforcement and specifically Deputy Weist," Clague said.
The sheriff said that the measure passed by the county board is one of many gestures of support that he and the department have received.
A representative from the New York Yankees called Clague for permission to put a picture of Weist with the date of his "end of watch" and location, Knox County, up on the centerfield scoreboard during a game.
Afterwards, the Yankees sent Clague an 8x10 inch picture of the scene. Knowing that Weist's 9-year-old son plays baseball, Clague brought the picture over to Weist's wife and gave it to him.
"He just stood there for two or three minutes starting at it," Clague said. "He quickly said, 'Mom can I put that picture up in my room?"
The sheriff said that he has also personally received over 150 letters from people and law enforcement agencies from around the nation, including the Miami Police Department, LA Police Department, New York City Police Department, Houston Police Department and Chicago Police Department.
Clague said that he also received calls from the director of the FBI, the Director of Homeland Security, Governor Pritzker's office and the Director of State Police. At least 655 members of law enforcement attended Weist's funeral.
"I've always said that the majority of people respect law enforcement, support law enforcement but they've become minority because they never speak up," Clague said. "This was excellent proof of the support from the community. It's been overwhelming."
Hawkinson said that Fulton County passed the same measure for Fulton County Sheriff’s Deputy Troy Chisum’s family when Chisum was killed in the line of duty in 2019.
Weist was killed while setting up spike strips at the intersection of U.S. Route 150 and 150th Avenue, near Alpha in Henry County, intending to stop the suspect of a high speed, intending to stop the suspect of car chase.
Henry County State’s Attorney Catherine Runy has charged the suspect Daylon Richardson with crashing his car into and killing Weist. Richardson pled not-guilty during a hearing on Monday, May 23.
This article originally appeared on Galesburg Register-Mail: Yankees among those honoring fallen Knox County deputy, Nick Weist
