GREENSBORO, N.C. — A Blue Alert was sent out across the state December 30 when Sgt. Philip Dale Nix was shot and killed while attempting to stop a crime at a Sheetz gas station in Greensboro.

What You Need To Know

  • A Blue Alert system is designed to issue and coordinate alerts following a violent attack upon a law enforcement officer

  • Sgt. Philip Dale Nix’s death fit the criteria for the Blue Alert because he was killed, and suspects fled the scene

  • The North Carolina Center for Missing Persons is the only agency that can activate a Blue Alert and will do so only at the request of an investigating law enforcement agency head

North Carolina Missing Persons Center Director Morrissa Moyer has worked in the field for more than 20 years and had never seen a Blue Alert used. 

“I came into this position in June of 2023, and this is the first Blue Alert that we have completely activated in history,” Moyer said.

According to state prosecutors, after Nix was shot five times the suspects fled the scene, which triggered the alert because they posed a danger to the community, shot and killed a police officer and were a threat to other law enforcement officers. 

“The criteria is set out by legislation in the event this would happen, then they would request the Blue Alert. After that, we would go through and look at criteria, determine if it met criteria or not. In this case, it met criteria clear cut. So we were able to go ahead and approve it and send it out to the media and activate the emergency alert system,” she said.

Moyer said dispatchers who responded to that call will never be the same.

“I know a lot of the telecommunications that work with the Guilford Metro Communications, and they are heartbroken,” she said.

Along with dispatchers grieving Nix, his Greensboro Police Department family is still left in shock. 

On Wednesday, community members, family and friends of Nix held a vigil in honor of him and other victims of gun violence in the city.

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