Open letter to Dep. Eric Woods

Eric,

I'm glad to hear that you are back at work. I hope you have fully recovered from the injury at the sheriff's department shooting range on March 15.

I hope that you will file a complete, written report about what happened that day. Do not be swayed by any efforts to keep you from filing a thorough report. And there should certainly be no retaliation or retribution for your doing so.

Your report is essential to understanding clearly exactly what happened that day. Please include any information given to you or directions before the SWAT exercise for your element began. And please provide as careful time estimates as you can for intervals in entry by the five members who entered the room.

I understand it might be "awkward" for you to ask to read the other reports or to submit a FOIA request to read what the other deputies and corrections officers wrote in their reports. Two of the corrections officers include one string of wording that has 71 consecutive words that are identical, including non-standard punctuation. If you want to read them without requesting them internally or by FOIA, I shall be pleased to make my copies available to you. Feel free to have someone contact me for copies.

If anything smacked of hazing, indoctrination or initiation to SWAT, please include anything you know about it. You can either confirm or dispel rumors about this.

The carelessness involved that day must be addressed by senior management and the Sheriff. Lt. Cedergren's summary, written on the day of your injury, says you entered the room and then Hart entered the room. Three other deputies, including one sergeant, entered the room.

The positioning of the vicious-dog target on a steel frame was dangerous to all in the room, especially since it was placed so close to the door. Did you know it was there before you entered? Were you told not to shoot on it but, instead, to go left away from it?

The only way to prevent a future serious-injury incident like yours is to dissect what happened on March 15. The Sheriff and "leaders" were supposed to meet during the week after March 28 to review what happened, but there is no written documentation of any such review. Sgt. Embry, who was in the shoot room at the time of your injury, and Lt. Miller did not submit reports.

I am sure that many within the department are glad you are back. Some may be a little nervous now, if your report tells a different story.