ITHACA — Ithaca’s mayor says the city is taking an important step to provide health insurance to an officer shot in the line of duty three years ago.
The city is expected to adopt a resolution Wednesday night providing health insurance for Officer Anthony Augustine through September of 2035.
Mayor Svante Myrick says when Augustine was shot in October of 2012, while responding to a call on the west side of the city, it was a scary time for the entire community.
“I think it’s important as a community to send a message to that kind of terror, to say that we will take care of the people who take care of us,” Myrick said this week.
Augustine has fought to return to the police department, but has never been cleared by the city to return to the force.
“It’s just that, unfortunately, the nature of his injuries make that impossible,” Myrick said. “So, I think for those reasons, it’s the right thing to do to offer insurance for Officer Augustine and his family.
The agreement is part of Augustine’s retirement from the police department.
Jamel Booker, the man who shot Augustine, was sentenced to 25 years in prison in 2013.
