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SDSU probes officer's ND into station locker room bench
Posted: Fri Aug 03, 2012 1:07 am
by 308Mike
Gotta' be careful when loading and holstering that gun! There's NO need to be in a hurry, and anyway, you should have your booger-hook outside the bang switch! I wonder who's name tag that is next to the bullet hole??
It's got a single star on it, so they've been there at least 5 years.
SDSU probes officer's misfire into bench
Written by Aaron Burgin
4:43 p.m., July 30, 2012
The bullet hole in question
San Diego State University police are investigating an incident in which one of the force’s officers was loading a weapon in the department’s locker room and accidentally fired it into a bench.
No one was injured by the discharge, which happened shortly before noon on July 23. The officer involved has not been placed on leave and officials declined to identify him.
Capt. Lamine Secka would not say if the gun was department-issued or a personal weapon. He said no one else was in the locker room at the time.
“The accidental discharge was immediately reported to management by the officer involved and the incident is being investigated,” Secka said in the statement. “This incident is being investigated pursuant to university and department policies and procedures and, as with any incident of this type, appropriate action will be determined based on the findings.”
Secka said that the department has designated locations for loading and unloading weapons, called safety traps. He said that it isn’t uncommon for officers to check their weapons in the locker room before going out into the field.
“The question of whether the officer should have been loading his firearm in the location he was in is one of the items we will be reviewing,” Secka said. “So I can’t comment on whether it was appropriate to this instance.”
Michael Levine, a former Drug Enforcement Administration agent who serves as an expert witness in law enforcement cases in court, said an officer could face disciplinary action for such a discharge.
“If there are designated areas — and they aren’t the locker room — and someone is playing with their gun and it goes off, that’s a no-no,” said Levine, who added that an officer’s record will likely play a role in any discipline.
“If he has no citizen’s complaints or nothing on his record, he might just receive a reprimand or something administrative,” he said. “It all depends on the results of the investigation.”
Re: SDSU probes officer's ND into station locker room bench
Posted: Fri Aug 03, 2012 1:11 am
by Steamforger
Locker pop!!!
Re: SDSU probes officer's ND into station locker room bench
Posted: Fri Aug 03, 2012 1:46 am
by 308Mike
Personally, I doubt they were loading the gun, instead I bet they were in the process of moving it from their CCW holster to their duty belt holster, and had their booger-hook in the way (in front of the bang switch) when they shove it into the holster and BANG!!! I can only imagine the officer's thoughts and feelings at that time, especially RIGHT BEFORE we they just felt the holster hit their finger and feeling it press against the trigger and then the gun going BOOM!! That sick, sinking feeling you get in the pit of your stomach, the instant sweat that envelopes you when you KNOW you've REALLY F'KED-UP and that you have to report yourself and take your lumps as they come for your screwing up.
I don't know about anyone else, but I ALWAYS felt like shiite whenever I really screwed up, and sometimes wished I could find a hole to crawl inside and die. But most of us are far harder on ourselves than others would be / or are, so most of us get off with a slap on the wrist and an UNFORGETTABLE LESSON, one which we'll NEVER repeat (at least as far as my screw-ups were concerned).
THANK GOD nobody was hurt (or worse)!!
Re: SDSU probes officer's ND into station locker room bench
Posted: Fri Aug 03, 2012 2:02 am
by TheIrishman
I give him credit for quickly reporting it and admitting he discharged the weapon accidentally as opposed to claiming it "just went off". On the other hand...WTF? I come home from work every day and secure my(currently) IWB holster to my belt before retrieving my pistol from a secure storage area and performing a press check. It then goes into my holster unless I'm leaving my house(some may say paranoid, but 100% of home invasions happen at home). I've never had a N.D.. And these are the people the Dims say are the "only ones" qualified to carry a gun?
Re: SDSU probes officer's ND into station locker room bench
Posted: Fri Aug 03, 2012 3:09 am
by Yogimus
I miss slide safeties, and this is why I think "trigger safeties" are a joke.
This is a simple case of:
What were you doing?
Do you realize where you went wrong?
What do you plan on doing to fix it?
type talk
Re: SDSU probes officer's ND into station locker room bench
Posted: Fri Aug 03, 2012 4:21 am
by Netpackrat
Yogimus wrote:I miss slide safeties, and this is why I think "trigger safeties" are a joke.
They're not a joke; they just aren't designed to prevent this sort of thing. It was my understanding that the trigger safety (on the Glock, at least) was designed to prevent a discharge if the pistol is dropped on the butt, which could be caused by the inertia of the trigger causing it to continue backward when the rest of the pistol abruptly stops...
Re: SDSU probes officer's ND into station locker room bench
Posted: Fri Aug 03, 2012 4:31 am
by Denis
Nice photo! It would go nicely with the bullet hole in the wall at my local range, just underneath the "no manipulating firearms in this room" sign - also put there by the police. No-one was suspended or investigated, AFAIK...
Re: SDSU probes officer's ND into station locker room bench
Posted: Wed Aug 08, 2012 5:10 am
by Cybrludite
So... what caliber for bench?
Re: SDSU probes officer's ND into station locker room bench
Posted: Wed Aug 08, 2012 5:34 am
by Jericho941
Cybrludite wrote:So... what caliber for bench?
Hmm... no nervous system or circulatory system... I'm gonna go with
83mm.
Re: SDSU probes officer's ND into station locker room bench
Posted: Wed Aug 08, 2012 2:17 pm
by Aglifter
Would it be normal to be clearing a weapon? (Hitting a bench makes me think - tired/distracted, aimed in a safe direction, and pulled trigger.)