Social worker killed at VA clinic remembered as ‘devoted’ father, servant
Nicholas “Nic” Crews lived his life with passion and compassion.
For years, he focused on religious service and mental health work. It eventually led him to become a social worker with the U.S. Department of Veterans Affairs at a Jasper clinic.
“The biggest thing is he just wanted people to feel like they could get help and that it wasn’t hopeless,” his close friend, Cody Porter, told The Atlanta Journal-Constitution via phone. “He wanted people to walk into the VA and just feel welcome.”
On Tuesday, a veteran fatally shot Crews, 34, inside that same office where he wanted to make a difference, officials said. The gunman was soon killed outside the clinic during a shootout with police and an armed bystander, according to authorities.
Crews’ friends and loved ones packed the North River Church of Christ in Marietta on Sunday to pay their final respects to the man they said put all others before himself.
The funeral service happened to fall on what Porter called Crews’ spiritual birthday: the day he converted to Christianity and eventually was baptized back in the 2010s.
Porter learned about last week’s tragedy in a phone call: “Nic was shot.” He said he knew it was serious but didn’t feel sad for his friend. Instead, he felt sorrow for Crews’ pregnant wife, two young children, friends and for his own loss.
Crews’ relatives said he loved his wife, Alyssa, more than anything and that the two were looking forward to the birth of their third child, Delaney.
Mourners wiped their eyes in the hall as they looked at the smiling photos of the happy family set up just outside the sanctuary.
Outside, the parking lot of the Marietta church quickly filled with cars as hundreds of friends and loved ones arrived at the service. Each seat inside the church was taken. Everyone else stood along the walls or packed into the lobby so they could hear what was said.
Among the mourners was U.S. Marine veteran Erick Anderson, who said he was waiting at the Pickens County VA clinic last week when he heard the gunfire.
Anderson, who served in Desert Storm, said he had gone in and spoke with Crews several times.
“He was a very nice guy, somebody you could talk to if you were having issues,” said Anderson, who felt it was important to drive down from Ellijay for the service.
He was among a number of U.S. veterans who attended Crews’ funeral.
Porter said he pictures Crews up in heaven feeling endless joy. He said he can almost hear his friend’s deep belly laugh that often ended in a coughing fit.
“Not once have I felt anger toward (the gunman). I feel compassion for him. And I think that’s what Nic would feel as well,” Porter said, adding: “Nic would want this guy to walk into heaven right behind him, and he would embrace him in a hug and say, ‘I’m so sorry, brother.’”
Tuesday afternoon, 51-year-old Lawrence Charles Michels entered the VA clinic on East Church Street for a walk-in mental health consultation and shot Crews, the GBI previously said.
According to a U.S. Army spokesperson, Michels was a wire systems installer from August 1992 to October 1995. He was deployed to Haiti for about three months in 1995 and left the Army as a specialist. The spokesperson did not answer questions about Michels’ mental health history.
Crews had been working at the clinic for nearly three years. Porter said he previously worked as a therapist and led campus ministry at the University of Tennessee, where he also received his master’s degree in social work.
“Nic lived a life marked by compassion, courage, and calling. He believed deeply in showing up for people in their hardest moments, and he did so with humility, kindness, and unwavering faith‚” Crews’ wife, Alyssa, wrote in a statement shared with the AJC.
Speaking at her son’s funeral, Crews’ mother, Kim Morris, said he was her “ray of sunshine.”
“Our son died way too soon,” Morris told the congregation. “It is God that gives me strength in times like this.”
The Rev. Jeff Hickman said Crews didn’t just keep his faith to himself. He shared it with anyone who was willing to listen. That spirit of outreach was one of the reasons he became a social worker and tried to help America’s veterans, the reverend said.
Crews, he said, dedicated his life to “caring for those who carried unseen wounds.”
As he sat with him at the hospital, Hickman said he took Crews’ hand and told him he was proud of him. He also vowed to do everything in his power to take care of the man’s family, he told the crowd.
Ministry is also what led Crews to Porter. The two met at Kennesaw State University after Porter searched for a more meaningful life and became involved with Alpha Omega, a Christian collegiate group. Crews, one year older, was already ingrained in the organization.
As metro Atlanta met the imminent threat of a massive January 2014 snowstorm, Porter said Crews invited him to spend the night at his family home in Cobb County. They barely knew each other at the time and ended up hiking a snow-covered Kennesaw Mountain. When they got to the top, Porter said Crews taught him how to pray, something he had never done out loud.
From then on, Porter said Crews became a mentor and best friend.
“Nic spoke life into me. He was just that kind of person, and he carried that. That’s why he went into therapy, that’s why he went into social work,” he said.
The two became inseparable, and even their wives and young children grew close.
April 3 would have marked the Crews’ 10th wedding anniversary. The couple have two children, ages 4 and 2, and another on the way. In a statement, Crews’ wife described him as a “devoted” husband and “incredible” father.
Porter, a father of three children but soon to be four, said the two families would drive down to Panama City Beach and camp around Cobb together. They attended Sunday service at North River Church of Christ, where Porter said Crews was considered a leader.
“That was what our life was going to be: our families kind of being together and growing up together,” Porter said.
How to help
A GoFundMe campaign has been created by a family friend to help Crews’ wife and children. It had already raised nearly $390,000 by Saturday afternoon.
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