PTSD Might Cost Hero Cop From Pulse Nightclub Massacre His Job

One of the first responders at the Pulse nightclub mass shooting in June 2016 says he will be out of a job come January because he now suffers from PTSD.

Omar Delgado was hailed as a hero by the Eatonville Police Department for pulling people from the carnage in the venue last summer, but for the last eight months, Delgado has been unable to work anything but desk duty.

A spokesperson from the Eatonville Police Department told WKMG that the town of Eatonville had terminated Salgado’s employment effective Dec. 31, but declined to offer any further information.

“Due to my PTSD and my emotional state… obviously, I can’t do police work anymore,” Delgado told the station.

Salgado’s attorney, Paolo Longo, says medical professionals have told Delgado that “because of his PTSD, he shouldn’t be a police officer anymore.”

Longo told Inside Edition that Delgado’s pension will be fully vested next year, and the lawyer questions why the city is just now cutting ties with Delgado.

“Why let him work light duty for eight months and then do something now?” Longo said.

The 45-year-old police officer says he’s been haunted by his memories from the night Omar Mateen opened fire on the nightclub, killing 49 and wounding 53. He remembers hearing dozens of cell phones ringing and seeing bodies littering the floor, piled on top of each other in the darkened facility.

Delgado hauled as many of the wounded as he could, including Angel Colon, who was shot six times and couldn’t walk. The officer dragged Colon to safety, across the bloody barroom as the gunman continued firing. Mateen was later killed after a three-hour standoff with authorities.

“I came back physically, but not mentally,” Delgado said, adding that after the attack, he gets derailed by the sound of a ringing cellphone and suffers bouts of uncontrollable weeping.

“Now it’s all going away in two or three weeks,” he said of his dismissal from the police department.

“This holiday is going to be a rough one,” he said. “What we witnessed and saw, no man should have ever seen that.”

Photo credit: Instagram / @dearworld