ORLANDO, Fla. (AP) – A city pension board has granted early-retirement benefits to an Orlando police officer who was diagnosed with post-traumatic stress disorder after he responded to the shooting massacre at Pulse.
The Orlando Police Pension Board granted the benefits to 37-year-old Officer Gerry Realin July 13 after a hearing.
The Orlando Sentinel reports that Realin will get 80 percent of his salary of $70,000 a year for life.
A lawyer for the city had argued that it was too early in Realin’s treatment to determine if he would be permanently disabled.
Realin was on a police team that removed bodies from the Pulse nightclub after 49 patrons were killed last year in the worst mass shooting in modern U.S. history.
