Blood drive continues to honor fallen Fort Myers police officer Adam Jobbers-Miller

Reporter: Tiffany Rizzo
Published: Updated:
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Fort Myers police officer Adam Jobbers-Miller, 29, died in the line of duty in 2018.

The Fifth Annual Adam Jobbers-Miller Blood Drive started on Monday.

The Fort Myers Police officer was murdered in the line of duty back in 2018. This year’s blood drive will be the first since his killer, Wisner Desmaret, was sentenced to life in prison.

It’s a chance for the community to help out a good cause in honor of the fallen 29-year-old officer.

Desmaret shot Jobbers-Miller during a foot chase on July 21, 2018. First responders rushed him to Lee Memorial, where he survived for a week.

Five years later, no one has forgotten that night.

“I was called in the night that Adam was brought in,” said Renee McCauley, director of trauma in the ICU at Lee Memorial.

Lt. Roger Valdivia, with the Fort Myers Police Department, said he spent those seven days at the hospital with Jobbers-Miller’s family.

“As I sought to comfort Adam’s family, we prayed together that he would pull through, but he did not survive,” said Denise Sawyer, a chaplain at Lee Health.

While doctors were unable to save the officer, they were able to give him time for his family to gather and eventually say goodbye.

“In those critical moments, the first minutes of trauma, it’s that important that we have that blood readily available for that patient, and that night was Adam,” McCauley said.

In his memory, the police department and hospital system have honored him with the annual blood drive.

“It’s another way that Adam, although he’s not with us here, it’s still another way that he’s still contributing to this community,” Valdivia said.

Jeremy Puckett, the blood center supervisor, said he got to meet Jobbers-Miller through everyone that takes the time to make a donation.

This is the fifth year Lee Memorial and FMPD host a blood drive honoring fallen officer Adam Jobbers-Miller. (CREDIT: WINK News)

“We’ve all become really good friends, and I love hearing the stories of what a great kid he was,” Puckett said.

Jobbers-Miller lives on in others, said Sawyer.

“God saw ways that Adam could live on in the lives of many, and so through our sacrifice today in giving blood and through our acts of kindness every single day, Adam lives on,” she said.

The blood drive continues on Wednesday at Lee Memorial Hospital and Thursday at the Fort Myers Police Department. Both days will begin at 8:30 a.m. and run until 4:30 p.m.

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