![The Kevlar helmet that saved an Orlando officer. [Orlando Police Department]](https://images.dailycaller.com/image/width=960,height=411,fit=cover,f=auto/https://cdn01.dailycaller.com/wp-content/uploads/2016/06/2000px-Flag_of_Minnesota.svg_-16-e1465747137561.png "The Kevlar helmet that saved an Orlando officer. [Orlando Police Department]")
Sunday’s shooting at Pulse nightclub in Orlando, Fla., is already the deadliest mass shooting in U.S. history, having claimed 50 lives. But that figure could easily have been 51, if not for a Kevlar helmet that appears to have saved the life of one officer.
According to Florida Department of Law Enforcement special agent Danny Banks, an unnamed Orlando policeman had a bullet hit his helmet during the final assault that successfully killed shooter Omar Mateen. The officer ended up suffering an eye injury from the hit, but was otherwise unharmed. Banks said the helmet almost certainly saved the officer’s life.
Now, police are showing off a photo of the life-saving helmet, which is scuffed up but otherwise completely intact.
.@OrlandoPolice share helmet that saved life of officer responding to night club shooting. https://t.co/7INaHTemB1pic.twitter.com/lq5ou5vTpp
— NBC Nightly News (@NBCNightlyNews) June 12, 2016
In recent years, some media outlets have questioned the acquisition of Kevlar helmets by police departments, citing it as a way U.S. police departments are becoming increasingly “militarized.”
In this case at least, said militarization appears to have paid a heavy dividend.
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