Flags are flapping at half-staff as a line of vehicles is expected to lead a slain Greensboro police sergeant from the Raleigh medical examiner’s office to a Greensboro funeral home. The community is honoring Sgt. Philip Dale Nix.

The procession is getting underway at 1 p.m. Wednesday with a westbound route on I-40, and District Drive, Blue Ridge Road and Wade Avenue in the Raleigh area. Multiple agencies are honoring Nix and aiding in his body’s return to Greensboro. Road closures and traffic delays are expected as the procession is on the move, officials said.

Nix was shot and killed on Dec. 30 at a Sheetz convenience store in Colfax, a community west of Greensboro. Nix served 23 years in law enforcement and was assigned to the family victims unit. 

The Greensboro Police Department is not releasing details on the funeral home location out of respect of the family. 

At about 4 p.m. Dec. 30, Nix was off duty when he intervened as three suspects tried to steal five cases of beer from the Sheetz store at 3202 Sandy Ridge Dr., police said. Five shots were fired, and Nix was hit twice, officials said at a hearing Tuesday. 

Authorities charged 18-year-old Jamere Justice Foster with first-degree murder. Z’quriah Le’Pearce Blackwell, 18, and John Walter Morrison, 28, are charged with accessory after the fact. The trio made their first court appearance Tuesday, and a judge set a $500,000 bond for Blackwell, but denied bond for the other two. 

Since his killing, makeshift memorials at Sheetz and the police station have sprung up, with people leaving messages, flowers and items for the fallen sergeant who was a husband and father. 

The Greensboro Police Officers Association is raising money for Nix’s family through the Help a Hero website. 

A gathering at 5 p.m. Wednesday at the Phil McDonald Plaza is also planned to honor Nix.