Rinke Terpstra, one of four people killed in a terrorist attack on a tram in Utrecht in 2019, is to be awarded the country’s highest civil award for bravery posthumously.

The Erepenning voor Menslievend Hulpbetoon (“honorary medal for charitable help to others”) will be handed to Terpstra’s children by Utrecht mayor Sharon Dijkstra on Friday.

“We think it’s a beautiful gesture and very deserved,” Tepstra’s brother Bauke told the Volkskrant. “My brother always put others before himself,” he said.

Terpstra, who worked as a rail manager and was 49 at the time, was the first to pull the emergency brake when Gökmen Tanis opened fire in the tram on March 18, 2019, allowing several passengers to escape.

He blocked two bullets with his laptop before kicking in a window. After helping five other passengers out, Terpstra was fatally shot in the back as he left the tram.

Three others were killed in the attack and six others were wounded. Tanis was sentenced to life in prison in 2020.