officer accidentally shoots daughter

[SSN Vet]

this off Fox news.....


STRATFORD, Conn. — An off-duty New Haven police officer shot and critically wounded his 18-year-old daughter, apparently mistaking her for an intruder after she sneaked out of their Stratford home and re-entered through the basement.

Eric Scott, 41, on the New Haven force for nine years, has not been charged in the Tuesday shooting.

"Mr. Scott was under the impression his daughter had gone to bed for the night," Stratford Capt. Thomas Rodia said. "He did not expect his daughter to be outside or down in the basement."

Investigators said Tasha Scott left her home late Monday to meet a boyfriend. She triggered a backyard motion sensor light as she tried to enter through a basement door.

Awakened by the light, Eric Scott spotted someone moving in the basement bathroom, police said. He fired his department-issued pistol once, hitting the teen in the knee. The bullet traveled up her leg and lodged in her thigh area, police said.

Her father called 911, authorities said.

The teenager underwent surgery and was listed in critical but stable condition Wednesday morning.

Scott has been on leave since being struck by a truck while on duty in November. A telephone listing for him had been disconnected Wednesday morning, and a message left for him at the New Haven department was not immediately returned.

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Whatever happened to "be sure of your target and what's beyond".

I don't want to be the arm chair quarterback, but it seems on the surface that this guy had a total disregard for basic self defense gun handling.

I'm not sure about Conn. laws, but in the more socialist New England states like MA, this shooting would not be justified. Neither was the "intruder" armed, nor the "homeowner" without avenues of escape (thank goodness for the Castle Doctrine).

I have a theory about this.....

I think a great many police officers are not adequitely trained in the use of firearms. But, because they carry firearms daily as part of their job, they can easilly be lulled into thinking that they are "experts".

I know my BIL in the state police is only required to do a proficiency shoot every 6 mos.

I wonder if the training of "regular" police officers has gone down since the implementation of "SWAT" type experts.

Just a thought.

 

[DoubleTapDrew]

Whatever happened to "be sure of your target and what's beyond".

Exactly what I was thinking.
I wonder if he issued any commands or just popped her. Sounds like a bad shoot anyway you slice it.

 

[Aries-]

oh but dont you know. officers never make mistakes and THEY should be the only people to own guns !.

 

[griz]

Have you ever heard "I know anybody breaking into my house is up to no good", even on this board? This is a good example of why you can't be too careful before you pull the trigger. I sure do feel for that guy, can't imagine how bad it would be to accidentally shoot your own kid.

 

[skinnyguy]

officer accidentally shoots daughter

followed by

Eric Scott spotted someone moving in the basement bathroom, police said. He fired his department-issued pistol once, hitting the teen in the knee.

Perhaps this should be titled "Officer NEGLIGENTLY shoots daughter"?

 

[pax]

Pretty good poster child for all those people on THR who have been heard to remark, "If someone breaks into my home, they're bought and paid for and I will just shoot them ..."

Be sure of your target ... isn't just an empty platitude. It may literally save the life of someone you love.

pax

 

[Pilgrim]

California's 'Castle Doctrine' law does not extend to members of your household.

Pilgrim

 

[El Tejon]

As I used when attempting to cool down the Gun Shoppe Commando bravado of THR, "just because someone is in your house does not mean you can shoot them. It may be the neighbor's daughter or the UPS guy."

Just as freedom is not license, just because you own a gun does not mean you have some sort of Divine Right to declare a free fire zone and shoot anything that moves--no, not even in Texas.

THE FOUR RULES ARE LIFE.

 

[DogBonz]

Well here is proof...

"A gun in the home is more likely to injure a family member than an intruder... That is why only police and... what... that guy was a cop... ummm... well... you see... ummm

 

[ball3006]

A Surefire flashlight...

is alot cheaper than his upcoming medical bills.........I used to be in law enforcement and with respect to police gun handling, well I am not going there.......chris3

 

[fatelk]

A friend of mine years ago nearly shot his teenage son for the exact same type of thing. He pumps the shotgun while aiming it at a shadow coming in through the garage and asks "Who's there?!". The son freezes, wets his pants and forgets to respond. As he's trying to decide in the confusion and fog of waking up whether to shoot, his wife walks up behind him and says "What's going on?" as she flips the lights on.

As he was telling me the story years later he still got a little emotional at the thought of what almost happened. I can truly feel for the officer in the story. He made a very bad call and a foolish mistake I think we can all agree, himself most of all I'm sure, but it's still his daughter. I'm glad she's in stable condition and hope she recovers fully.

A big +1 on a good flashlight.

 

[GRIZ22]

Pretty good poster child for all those people on THR who have been heard to remark, "If someone breaks into my home, they're bought and paid for and I will just shoot them ..."


Thank you pax for putting proper perspective on this.

 

[Whatsit]

There's one teenager who won't be sneaking out again..

 

[Lonestar49]

DOG/s Man's best friend

...

Thank God a lot of us have a/o Dog/s (a German Shepherd in my case) that lives with us indoors, at night, and is the first line of defence in "hearing things" and can distinguish, thru keen hearing, smell, and better night sight, than us humans and can quickly defuse a situation like this or, light the fuse, and, alert us of a "real unknown intruder".


Peace of mind IMO, is a German Shepherd, or simply put, a DOG (then some guns)


LS

 

[Sindawe]

There's one teenager who won't be sneaking out again..

My thoughts as well.

I concur that the home owner should have ID'd his target before firing, 'specially since there are several legitimate occupants of the home.

 

[pax]

Lonestar ~

A few years back, I was looking around for a family dog. Someone in the paper was giving away a dog that sounded perfect, so I went to their place to meet the animal. He was beautiful, a lovable giant mutt with ... maybe some Great Dane and maybe some Lab in his ancestry. The family hated to let him go, but were moving. Because I had a houseful of very small and very active boys, one of the questions I had for them was whether the dog had ever shown any sign of aggressiveness toward family members.

The man and woman looked at each other and started laughing.

When they got control of themselves, the man told the story of a really bad day. He had to work really late one night when his wife was out of town. His car had broken down just after he left work, and a friend had dropped him off at his house. Of course, after the friend drove off, the poor man discovered he'd left his keys either in the friend's car or maybe locked in his own. So he walked around to the side yard, pulled the spare house key out of its hiding place, and let himself in the back garage door.

The dog met him at the door, jumping at him and bowling him over with barks and vicious-sounding growls. The man landed on his back in a mud puddle and broke his ankle.

Heh.

It was unclear at what point the dog realized his goof, but the man claimed that the dog slunk away "looking embarrassed."

pax

 

[PcMakr]

El Tejon:

"It may be the neighbor's daughter or the UPS guy."

What would the UPS guy be doing in your house without you permission?

A situation arose a couple of months ago with my daughter going to school up in Omaha. She went to tak a nap upstairs in her room in the house she shares with 2 other frmale students. He roommates left to go shopping and forgot to lock the front door. At some point in time while they were gone, my daughter was awakened by a man in her upstairs bedroom. I turned out to be a delivery guy for DHL, and he woke her up so she could sign for a delivery. She ripped him a new one verbally, filed a report to DHL offices, and the police dept. Management at DHL apologized and said they would do an investigation. To our knowledge nothing else has happened yet.

Fortunately, for her he was just a young guy that wasn't thinking at all. Fortunatley for him, she wasn't armed at the time, or that it wasn't somebody who was.

 

[langenc]

"Hit in knee and bullet travelled to thigh"-bullets do funny stuff.

In my Army career I was assigned where the Armys MDs processes in-Ft Sam Houston. There was a lab where goats were anesthetized and shot in the thighs so the docs could debride the wounds. Friend that worked there told be about bullets travelling who knows where on impact with a bone. They tried NOT to hit the femur. He also said docs were NOT equally qualified to debride wounds.

 

[45Badger]

"Hit in knee and bullet travelled to thigh"-bullets do funny stuff.

So I'm thinking. Daughter shot on the toilet??

 

[DogBonz]

Aint this the truth?

Thank God a lot of us have a/o Dog/s (a German Shepherd in my case) that lives with us indoors, at night, and is the first line of defence in "hearing things" and can distinguish, thru keen hearing, smell, and better night sight, than us humans and can quickly defuse a situation like this or, light the fuse, and, alert us of a "real unknown intruder".

When I was a teenager, I too found myself sneaking in late one night. Our GSD (120 pounds of muscle and teeth) must have heard me coming in and went to investigate. As I rounded the corner from the living room into the hall all I saw was a flash and teeth coming at me at eye level… fast… and I mean FAST. In mid air he realized that it was me and not an intruder and aborted the mission. He did bump into me pretty hard though and knocked me down, which woke up my dad who asked what I was doing. Why, taking the dog for a walk, of course. The funny part was that I didn’t even have time to be frightened. It happened that quickly. If he had not broken off the attack I am very afraid to think of the damage he could have done.

 

[pax]

DogBonz ~

Which just goes to show that a dog can be tremendously helpful in defending the home, but dogs aren't infallible, either.

Be sure of your target ...

pax

 

[DogBonz]

Pax

Oh, yeah. I know that dogs are not always 100%. They are early warning systems, much like a smoke detector. My dogs have always been pets first, early warning systems second. While I would not rely solely on a dog, they are a great “layer” to have in your security system. My last GSD was very good, though and is truly missed. I have had a lot of GSDs but this guy was something else. He was an amazing dog, and very bright. I even taught him to fetch beers from the fridge.

 

[Pitmaster]

I always want to keep in mind that the last thing I want to do is pull the trigger. In spite of what I read about home-self defense from some people, I'm inclined to provide some warning that will allow a bad guy in my house to leave.

I would think that if hearing a strange noise I would expect to rule out family first. Especially when having teenagers. Most sneak out at least once, and all come in late at times.

 

[Technosavant]

Pax- but did you get the dog?

(Dogs that feel embarrassed look awfully funny...)

Yet another reason to keep a flashlight next to the gun, ESPECIALLY if you aren't the only one in the house.

DO NOT PULL THE TRIGGER if there is a reasonable chance that the outcome of doing it might be worse than the outcome of not doing it. If you have others living in the home and you have not positively ID'd the subject as a hostile intruder, then that subject might well be the spouse or a child. I'd rather let an intruder get a freebie than to harm my wife (no kids yet) by mistake.

 

[Johnny B]

Dogs are interesting, though, one must admit. They're not 100% by any stretch, but they do seem to be equipped with some mechanism by which they can distinguish friend from foe. We had one dog (a cocker spaniel!) when I was just a kid living in Las Vegas, and I will never forget the time when in the middle of the night he cornered some guy on the run from the cops who had robbed a convenience store nearby right in our backyard. He was displaying a kind of viciousness that a territorial animal alone could muster. This dog was maybe 35 pounds, soaking wet, and he managed to terrify this guy enough so that he froze up until the police showed up. Granted, I think the perp was seriously strung out on God knows what and probably drunk to boot, but nonetheless, I was astonished that such a small animal could have that effect on a person.