Crying police officer (Shutterstock)
Richard "Pedie" Perez was shot and killed by Officer Wallace Jensen of Richmond, California during a 2014 scuffle. Now Jensen has retired from the police department. Despite serving fewer than 10 years, however, Officer Jensen will score industrial disability retirement, which entitles him to collect half of his last salary tax-free for the rest of his life.
Police and firefighters are the only employees eligible for industrial disability retirement, and to be approved the recipient must have a sign off from a physician. The city's risk assessment manager Kim Greer told The Mercury News that Officer Jensen can begin getting his disability payments on day one. Chief Allwyn Brown wouldn’t reveal Jensen’s injuries or disability.
Jensen shot Perez after a nuisance call came in from a local liquor store. Jensen tried to arrest a young man, who was intoxicated and resisting arrest. He fired his gun three times, claiming that Perez was trying to take his gun away. At least four eyewitnesses disputed the story, saying that the intoxicated man was simply trying to get away.
The city settled a lawsuit with the family for wrongful death of Perez for $850,000, claiming no contest. The family says they settled because they wanted the information around the investigations to be made public.
"For the most part, it hasn't been," Rick Perez, Pedie's father said.
However, there is no law that requires a report to families of police shooting victims.
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