Maitland officers honored for responding to Pulse shooting

Police officers Joshua Rotarius and Corry Dibiase were working the midnight shift in Maitland when the call came in from the Orlando Police Department asking for assistance. It was just after 2 a.m. on June 12.

The two young officers, with less than seven years of patrol experience between them, raced toward what they’d been told was an active shooter scene. What they’d find at their destination, Pulse nightclub on South Orange Avenue in Orlando, was the ongoing scene of the worst mass shooting in recent U.S. history.

“These two young officers – along with other officers who responded to this scene –handled one of the most horrific crime scenes any police officer or first responder will ever have to deal with,” said Maitland Police Chief Doug Ball while presenting the officers with Life Saving Awards at Monday’s Maitland City Council meeting.

When they reached Orange Avenue on that early Sunday morning, Ball said, Rotarius and Dibiase ran the opposite way of the manic crowds and straight toward Pulse chasing the sound of ongoing gunfire.

Multiple victims awaited them outside of the nightclub, scores injured and others already dead. Rotarius started administering first aid to those in need until his patrol car’s kit ran out of supplies. Then, Ball said, he began instructing survivors to help apply pressure to the wounds of those that were injured, and helped carry victims to the makeshift triage area set up behind Einstein Bros. Bagels less than two blocks away.

Dibiase made entry into the nightclub, where dead bodies littered the dance floor and those still alive cried for help.

“Once inside they found large numbers of victims deceased, others seriously wounded begging for help, injured beyond belief,” Ball said.

While the shooter was barricaded in the bathroom, Ball said, Dibiase helped rescue those alive and injured.

Ball said both Maitland officers entered the hot zone numerous times, knowing the shooter was still at large and that he may be in possession of explosive devices.

“They did so at great risk for themselves to save others,” Ball said.

In a time of uncertainty for police officers across the country, following the shooting of officers in both Dallas and Baton Rouge, Ball said his officers’ actions on June 12 demonstrated the courage of his department.

“I feel confident that any of our officers, just like Joshua and Corry,” he said, “would run into a building toward the gunfire, not away from it, to save others’ lives.”