TUPELO — Tupelo police want to donate unused sick leave to the officer who was wounded during a deadly bank robbery.
Twenty-seven-year-old Officer Joseph Maher is out of the hospital. But Police Chief Bart Aguirre tells The Northeast Mississippi Daily Journal he has probably not earned enough sick leave over five years to recover from his wound.
Aguirre says he and other longtime officers can spare some. They want to ensure that Maher doesn’t lose any pay.
The Tupelo City Council is expected to consider the request Tuesday night.
The robber who shot Maher killed Sgt. Kevin “Gale” Stauffer on Dec. 23.
The FBI says the gunman was 40-year-old Mario Edward Garnett, who robbed an Atlanta bank customer earlier Dec. 23 and died Dec. 28 in a police shootout in Phoenix.
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