The senior Canton Police officer, who oversaw scene operations at 34 Fairview Road on the snowy January 2022 morning Boston Police officer John O’Keefe died, is set to retire.

Lt. Paul Gallagher, the town’s top earner last year at $322,389.05, has submitted his retirement papers which the Select Board approved on Tuesday. He has served 30 years in the force.

A Herald analysis of the town’s payroll for 2023 found that four Canton police officers who responded to the scene that morning earned more than $200,000 in total pay last calendar year, with Gallagher at the top.

Gallagher, who took the stand in early May during the Karen Read murder trial, testified to overseeing scene operations including securing the site, collecting evidence and interviewing witnesses.

“Nothing about the scene was standard,” Gallagher said of the Canton property the morning of Jan. 29, 2022. He testified he had never secured a crime scene in the snow during his 30-year career.

He said he used a leaf blower to gently remove snow from the area where other officers told him O’Keefe’s body had been. There, Gallagher said he collected six samples of presumed blood from the area in red Solo cups and located a shattered piece of a drinking glass.

But, he said under cross-examination, he saw “none” of the broken tail light pieces police would say they later found at the scene.

O’Keefe died at age 46 when prosecutors allege his girlfriend of two years, Read, 44, of Mansfield, backed her Lexus SUV into him at high speed, leaving him to die in the cold during a major snowstorm.

Defense attorneys counter that outside actors killed O’Keefe and conspired with state and local police to frame Read for his murder.

Gallagher’s base salary last year was $153,101.27 but he earned more than double that with $100,972.16 in details and $52,938.54, payroll records show.