[Detachment Charlie]

The reporter or the cop?

http://www.bradenton.com/mld/bradentonherald/news/local/6077284.htm

Gun misfires in school drill
BRIAN HAAS
Herald Staff Writer

MANATEE - A SWAT team member accidentally shot a hole in a Manatee High School wall Tuesday, school officials said.

A report from the Manatee County Schools said the Bradenton Police Department's Special Response Team was conducting a drill at Manatee High School around 11 a.m. Tuesday when one of the officers' guns accidentally went off into a wall in the school. The school's report did not identify the officer.

Forrest Branscomb, the Manatee County Schools' risk manager, said police were conducting a "familiarity session" at the high school and that police have conducted other drills at the school in the past.

Branscomb said the team was training all morning in the Davis Building and was preparing for more drills after lunch when an officer's gun went off in a hallway. Branscomb said the bullet made a "very small" hole in the wall.

"Fortunately, when the weapon was discharged, there were no folks around," Branscomb said. "There were no students at all present. I believe they waited for this time of year to do this exercise for just that."

Maj. J.J. Lewis, spokesman for the Bradenton Police Department, said he could not comment on the incident, though he said nobody was hurt Tuesday. Police officials would not release the officer's name, pending a report of the incident.

Lewis said he could also not comment on whether police are conducting an internal investigation into the errant shot.

"Shortly there will be a report available," Lewis said. "Whenever there's a situation like this, administratively it has to run its course."

The report was not available Thursday.

Branscomb said the schools are working more closely with law enforcement lately and will likely have more drills in the future.

"This is not going to stop us from preparing and doing these drills," he said. "It's just an unfortunate mishap."

Brian Haas, staff writer, can be reached at 745-7024 or at bhaas@bradentonherald.com.

:banghead:

[USMCsilver]

...when an officer's gun went off in a hallway.

Yeah, sure, they just "go off" all the time...:cuss:

[Nathaniel Firethorn]

Who Is Dumber

The reporter or the cop?Forrest Branscomb.

- pdmoderator

[Devonai]

?

The cop.

I read this story three times looking for ignorance or bias on the part of the reporter. Maybe it's nap time for me but I didn't see anything wrong with it.

[DadOfThree]

Forrest Branscomb, the Manatee County Schools' risk manager
"School Risk Manager" ?? Is that an actual job title at many schools? No wonder they don't have enough money for books. I have a friend in Cincinnati whose school budget for security is higher than the curriculum budget. We need more taxes :rolleyes:

[Standing Wolf]

Keep your finger off the trigger until...

Aw, never mind.

[JPM63US]

Why was the officer's gun even loaded? Why risk a familiarity drill with loaded weapons - unless live fire were part of the excersise. Sounds like the COP blew it and the reporter got all the facts, but was too wimpy to call the N.D. what it was.

JPM

[Hand_Rifle_Guy]

Thanks to the Hollywood shootout, EVERYONE gets a aemi-auto rifle.
Not everyone is familiar with 'em, and cops aren't neccessarily gun people.

ALL rifles are single action. No DAO option on long-guns, unlike all the LEO handguns.

Rifles are SUPPOSED to have light triggers, it's part of their accuracy.

the answer, of course, is training, training, and more training.

Which COSTS. Take it up at policy level.

Just don't expect any results. Politicians are cheap bastards when funding non-pork services, and they don't wish to hand out their bacon. :p

[jacketch]

Sounds like the fault of some evil black gun. The need to find it before it murders some innocent person in their bed.:evil:

[Betty]

when one of the officers' guns accidentally went off

Those darn guns, always going off by themselves. Why, if one of my guns did that, it would get a good, hard spanking. And then I'd ground it for a week.

Branscomb said the bullet made a "very small" hole in the wall.

:scrutiny:

Hmmm... Let me reword that. "Branscomb said the bullet made a 'very small' hole in a fellow officer's head."

It's just a small hole folks - nuthin' to worry about.

[toro]

I don't understand. I thought all the SWAT teams had a lot of training. Good thing it was practice and not the real deal. I wonder if they will be allowed in the school in the future?



Molly


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11 Kings 17:15
And they rejected his statutes, and his covenant that he made with their father, and his testimonies which he testified against them; and they followed vanity, and became vain, and went after the heathen that were round about them, concerning whom the Lord had charged them, that they should not do like them.

[Bruce H]

The SWAT team member should be walking a beat immediately. Armed with a pencil and a ticket book. Make it a single shot pencil at that.

[CZ-75]

Barney Fife worked his way up to SWAT. :evil: :rolleyes:

A beat cop might have an excuse (minimal), but someone in SWAT has none and should, as Bruce suggested, be given meter maid duties.

[faustulus]

I wonder how it would have been written if it were a CCW holder or other non-LE?

[Destructo6]

when an officer's gun went off in a hallway
"I used to have that problem, but now I just think about baseball," Frank Drebin.

[Carlos]

Reminds me of a incident that killed a young guy in Oregon - Clackmas County Sheriff's officer - during SWAT training. A dummy grabbed a loaded mag and AD'd Officer Bowman. Pathetic.

Seems to me the cops are more prone to accidents than the gun savvy masses.

It makes me sick, as I met the officer personally before. He was a real nice guy. I pray for his family.

The dummy should be fired. And the Risk Manager needs a lesson in reality, then the loss of his job too.

Never ceases to amaze me. . . :banghead: :cuss:

[280PLUS]

BUT ANDY!!!

barn, give me your gun,,,bullet too...

"very small hole" :what:

now THATS the funniest thing i heard all day, and i already heard a couple of whoppers...

well, at least it wasnt a BIG hole, i think theyre concerned with how much it'll cost to patch more than anything else

good thing it wasnt me or you...

:rolleyes:

[El Tejon]

"Cledus, I say, Cledus, I done tole you twicet, gollygoshdurnit--RULE #3!"

toro, no, SQUAT does not get a lot of training in every case. The problem, IME, is that the brass buy them the ubercool gear like 701s or HK54s, but do not insist on training. Training eats money for flagpole or pr stuff.

Basic gunhandling would have prevented this potential loss of a child and/or teammate. You have to crawl before walking then jogging then running.

It's about the software, not the hardware!:mad:

[Sylvilagus Aquaticus]

It could have been much, much worse. Here in DFW a training officer accidently shot another training officer in the head at close range with his duty weapon during an exercise, a demonstration, at a local school. The only weapons authorized for use/possession during the exercise were to be Simunition-only weapons yet one good officer lost his life, the other lost his career as well as a good friend.

"Training exercise" does not equate to "cakewalk".

Stay conscious of what is happening, even if it is something you consider routine.

Regards,
Rabbit.

[toro]

I was wondering, why wouldn't police officers pay for their own training? I know many Civilians who went to gunsite on their own dime. In our city the police make higher wages than many civilians. You would think if their life and other lives depended on their gun handling they would pay to get the extra training, just as the civilians pay for their training.



Molly :rolleyes:


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John 20:2931
Jesus saith unto him, "Thomas, because thou hast seen me thou hast believed: blessed are they that have not seen, and yet have beleived." And many other signs truly did Jesus in the presence of his disciples, which are not written in this book: But these are written, that ye might believe that Jesus is the Christ, the Son of God; and that believing ye might have life through his name.

[El Tejon]

toro, in any profession you have people that are zealous, people who are "just doing my job" and klutzes. No different in LE.

When I was in LE, I paid my own way for kung fu and gun fu, but I was the exception. Like anywhere else, people want to ride in the wagon and not pull their own weight--that is true in the non-LE gun culture as well.

Just because someone is a copper does not mean they stop being human. Overcoming inertia in any organization is a momentual feat. If you want to understand frustration, just ask a copper who is into guns and who has just become head of the FTU about training his officers and the inherent resistance he may receive.

There are many coppers who are "into guns." Most of the well-known instructors have LE backgrounds and connections.

The road is long and perilous, but if we do not move forward, the road becomes longer.:cool:

[Don Gwinn]

Possibly this was not part of the drill at all, but one of the dreaded "Unloading Accidents." Says they were coming back from lunch and preparing for the next drill, so maybe he'd loaded his sidearm (or a rifle, I suppose, but the article doesn't say that) and managed to fire it while trying to unload it. It sounds silly, but people manage it.