Thelma Gibson, a South Florida trailblazer in health care, education and community leadership, has died at 99.

Gibson passed away Wednesday at her home, surrounded by family and a priest, according to her niece, Misty Brown. Funeral arrangements are pending.

Born in 1926 in Coconut Grove, Gibson grew up with a strong emphasis on education. She said her mother encouraged her and her siblings to pursue schooling so they would not have to work low-paying domestic jobs.

After graduating from nursing school in 1947, Gibson was hired at Jackson Memorial Hospital. But when she arrived, she said she was told she could not work in the operating room because of segregation and was instead directed to gain experience on the hospital’s “colored floors.”

Undeterred, Gibson built a nursing career that spanned more than three decades, saying she cherished the time she spent caring for others.

Beyond her medical work, Gibson served on numerous boards and committees and became a key community leader. She founded Miami-Dade County’s first Women’s Chamber of Commerce and, following the race riots that devastated Liberty City in the early 1980s, she and her husband launched Black Investors of Dade County to help rebuild the community.

Family members said Gibson considered her service to her community and her church, Christ Episcopal, among her greatest accomplishments.

Gibson often described herself simply as a proud American committed to helping others — a legacy her family says will endure for generations.

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New bodycam video shows a fatal police shooting in Miami back in 2023 as prosecutors say the officer was legally justified in the killing.

The footage was released this week after the Miami-Dade State Attorney’s Office determined the Oct. 11, 2023 shooting of 20-year-old Arnicious Xavier Odom, Jr. was justified.

According to a Feb. 3 close-out memo from the state attorney’s office, Odom and another man had been seen jaywalking on Northwest 2nd Avenue near Northwest 60th Street while wearing ski masks and hoodies.

A detective approached and the other man was found with a loaded gun in his pants but Odom fled on foot, prompting a pursuit, the memo said.

The bodycam footage shows Det. Sthephany Canizares running after Odom with her weapon drawn.

At one point, Odom threw a gun over a fence and then hopped over the fence at a field at Miami Edison Senior High School.

The memo said Canizares ordered him not to pick the gun up but Odom went to pick it up and that’s when Canizares shot and killed him.

“I told him not to go for that gun!” Canizares is heard telling other officers in the footage.

The state attorney’s office said Canizares’ actions in shooting Odom were legally justified because “it was reasonable to believe that he posed an imminent threat of death or great bodily harm to the officers,” the memo said.

After the shooting, Odom’s mother, Antionette Jones, told NBC6 she wanted answers.

“Witnesses out there said that my baby was running across the field and collapsed,” she said. “If he was running from you, what harm can he do to you? What can he do? Why didn’t you tase him?”

CORAL GABLES, Fla. — Malik Reneau scored 16 points, Ernest Udeh Jr. had 15 points and 10 rebounds and Miami never trailed while beating No. 11 North Carolina 75-66 on Tuesday night for the Hurricanes’ first victory over a Top 25 opponent in two years.

Tre Donaldson finished with 14 points, six rebounds and five assists, and Shelton Henderson added 12 points for the Hurricanes (19-5, 8-3 Atlantic Coast Conference).

Udeh made a free throw with 2:11 remaining, then rebounded his missed second attempt and scored on a layup to put Miami ahead 66-60.

After Donaldson’s layup with 1:20 left made it 69-62, Jarin Stevenson’s layup 5 seconds later got the Tar Heels (19-5, 7-4) within five. Despite finishing 14 of 23 from the foul line, Miami clinched the win with six free throws in the final minute.

As soon as the horn sounded, Hurricanes fans stormed the court, celebrating their first win over a Top 25 team since beating No. 16 Clemson 95-82 Jan. 3, 2024.

Stevenson scored 13 points, Caleb Wilson had 12 and Henri Veesar added 11 for the Tar Heels.

Wilson, the Tar Heels’ leading scorer with 20 points per game, left briefly for the locker room midway through the second half and had his left hand wrapped when he returned with 8:47 remaining.

The loss snapped North Carolina’s five game-win streak.

Miami outscored North Carolina 46-28 in the paint. Udeh made seven of eight shots, including five on dunks. After shooting 7-of-13 from 3-point range in the first half, the Tar Heels were 1 of 14 from behind the arc in the second half.

The Hurricanes opened a 10-point lead on Reneau’s three-point play seven minutes into the first half that made it 22-12.

North Carolina chipped away and stayed within striking distance the remainder of the half. Kyan Evans’ 3-pointer with 1:01 remaining got the Tar Heels to 41-40 before Timo Malovec’s two free throws with 27 seconds left gave the Hurricanes a 3-point lead at halftime.

Up next

North Carolina: Host Pittsburgh on Saturday.

Miami: At North Carolina State on Saturday.