"Shot Fired"

One of the most hazardous calls for a police officer or sheriff's deputy is a "Shots Fired!" call. It really gets the ol' Adrenalin pumping!

But what if the shot is fired in your own patrol room? Read this one. Actually, it's not all that uncommon. In Colorado there was a picture frame (frame and glass; no picture) hung on the wall of the patrol room over a bullet hole!

This juicy one came to me by email:

"Sgt. H was also at the center of a "accidental" discharge of a fire arm that took place right in the roll call room. Some deputies having guns is not as safe as the public might think. Here's the story....One morning deputy 1 is talking to deputy 2 about a new safety feature on his pistol. Sgt. H is present. Deputy 1 tells deputy 2 that the weapon wont fire under certain conditions and attempts to demonstrate. The weapon is loaded. Deputy 1 un-holsters the weapon. Points it at a door that leads into the roll call room. A place deputies are known to frequent, mind you, especially before and after shift. Then deputy 1 pulls the trigger. A bullet goes through the door and ends up in the storage locker located inside the roll call room. Again, someone could have been killed. Now, this entire event was witnessed by Sgt. H. At no point did she feel that firing a loaded weapon inside the building was a bad idea. Mind boggling! She wasn't disciplined, deputy 1 received a reprimand, deputy 2 was scared "poop-less" and learned a valuable lesson."

You'll understand, of course, why accidental was put in parentheses. There was no accident about it. The deputy pulled the trigger; the gun fired. It's called Negligence. As soon as the weapon was removed from its holster, it should have first been checked for a safe condition. That means removing the magazine and ejecting any round from the chamber.

Here Deputy 1 "assumed" he understood how the weapon was supposed not to fire. Where do you test that? On the firing range! Not in the roll call room.

You can be a nice guy and still make a dumb decision. Everyone is lucky that no one was injured. It doesn't change your being a nice guy.