Update: Newtown Ordered to Pay $380k to Officer With Sandy Hook PTSD

The State Board of Mediation and Arbitration ordered the Town of Newtown to pay Officer Thomas Bean 50 percent of his salary until he retires, an amount that totals more than $380,000.

Bean, 40, responded to the Sandy Hook Elementary School Shooting in 2012 and suffered from post-traumatic stress disorder.He has been on long-term disability since then, according to documents from the board.

Bean’s psychiatrist gave the opinion that he is 100 percent disability from working in law enforcement. He applied for long-term disability benefits and was granted them, but the town said that the long term disability policy only covered mental illness for 24 months.

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The police union filed a grievance over the matter, arguing that the union and town never agreed to let the insurance carrier determine maximum coverage for mental illness, according to the decision documents.

The union also argued that long term disability for mental illness beyond two years was rare and that there were no such claims in the past 30 years and that it wouldn’t be unreasonable for the town to self-insure for that purpose.

Bean responded to the school about 44 minutes after the first 911 call, according to the Hartford Courant. He was posted near a side entrance while children were still being evacuated.

By then Adam Lanza had killed himself and police were doing a sweep to make sure there were no other shooters. Bean entered the classrooms where the children had been shot, according to the Courant.

Bean previously received an intent to terminate letter from the town, but the letter was rescinded after public outcry.

Newtown will have to pay out the money itself, according to the Hartford Courant.