An officer was seriously hurt September 10 when he accidentally shot himself in the leg during advanced firearms training at the Police Academy shooting range in Paterson, New Jersey. Officials say he was transported to St. Joseph’s University Trauma Center and is being treated for severe injuries.
The unnamed officer, a firearms instructor with the Haledon Borough Police Department, was attending a week-long rifle course in Passaic County on Tuesday afternoon when authorities say he had an accidental discharge while conducting a drill, shooting himself in the leg at around 12:15 pm. While his injuries are said to be severe, they are not considered life-threatening according to officials. As of the last update from St. Joseph’s, the officer was listed in serious but stable condition.
“The sacrifices and dangers faced by law enforcement officers serve as constant reminders of the challenges inherent in their commitment to serve and protect our communities,” said Haledon Chief of Police, Angelo J. Daniele, recognizing that the risks associated with duty are persistent, even during training.
Although no crime or act of negligence has been indicated, the incident is considered an officer-involved shooting, all of which are referred to the Attorney General’s Office of Public Integrity and Accountability. In addition, the Passaic County Prosecutor’s Office has been assigned as the independent prosecutor on the case according to authorities.
“As the proud mayor of Haledon, I want to take a moment to express my heartfelt support for one of our Haledon Police Department Firearms Instructors who sustained an accidental discharge injury during training… I join the Haledon Municipal Council in extending our thoughts and prayers to him as he receives treatment at St. Joseph’s University Medical Center in Paterson, New Jersey,” said Haledon’s mayor Michael Johnson in a statement on Tuesday evening.
Training accidents such as this happen in the law enforcement community as well as the military. They are an unfortunate hazard of the occupation. The public has taken to Facebook to wish the officer a speedy recovery along with heartfelt thoughts and prayers, a level of community support for law enforcement that I find encouraging considering anti-police rhetoric over the last few years. I’d like to add my best wishes to the officer, his family and law enforcement personnel around the country who face dangerous situations daily, whether in training or out in the field protecting our communities. Thank you for your sacrifice, and stay safe.
Not an accident… A negligent discharge resulting in a self inflicted gunshot wound.
Not accidental, negligent.
If I worked in in New Jersey I’d want to shoot myself too.
😊
Training is never completely safe. There are a certain number of accidents.
Prayers for this officer.
I have a friend who was in 4.5 gunfights- four with other people and in another Pete shot himself in the leg, counting as .5 a gunfight.
Civilians do it too, Colonel Cooper has two legs shots in one year at Gunsite.
Boots
With a RIFLE?
“Civilians do it too.”
Police are also civilian.
Only the police and military should have guns, they say.
Only they have the training to handle them safely, they say.
I’ve never shot myself (or anyone else, for that matter), I say.
I’ve never shot anyone else either, at least by accident.
I’d bet money he was handling a striker-fired side arm. Likely, the officer was re-holstering and had his finger still on the trigger instead of properly indexed. Not that shooting yourself with a DA/SA hammer fired weapon isn’t possible. If the weapon is in single action with the shooters finger on the trigger during re-holstering, it will surely fire. It’s just much easier to have a ND with strikers due to that consistent easy trigger pull.
It’s pretty damn hard to pull a 10lb trigger if you don’t plan to.
You would be surprised (see NYPD)
M, they said it was a rifle class. More likely an AR. Also accounts for all mentions of severe wounds.
If he’d only had Debbie’s tire valve glock blocker this would have all gone away in an instant
The article states it was a week-long rifle training class. Nowhere does it mention the use of a pistol.
Just a guess but if the training is anything like a large number of NY departments rifle to pistol transition may have been involved on one of the modules.
The mayor says, “ …support for one of our Haledon Police Department Firearms Instructors who sustained an accidental discharge injury during training…”
Negligence. End of story. And worse because he’s an instructor for the department.
I say that as an instructor who’s had a ND, and owns it to this day. I talk about in almost every class as an example of what not to do.
Safety is not a destination, it is a constant journey.
The second you start thinking that you’re safe enough, Murphy wakes up and starts looking for you.
I wish the officer well.
But I must point out that the headline and first sentence of this story perpetuate the incorrect thinking in the media and amongst the general public.
With all due respect, I hope the author and editor take but a few moments to educate themselves on the difference between negligence and accidental.
To you both I would call on the sage wisdom from Uncle Ben Parker, “With great power, comes great responsibility.”
how do you know it was “Negligence”?
Negligence (noun) is:
1. The state or quality of being negligent.
2. A negligent act or a failure to act.
3. Failure to use the degree of care appropriate to the circumstances, resulting in an unintended injury to another.
Accidental (adjective) is:
1. occurring unexpectedly or by chance
2. happening without intent or through carelessness and often with unfortunate results.
I’m going to go with ‘accidental’ as the closest match ’cause: negligent implies an intent to not do ‘something’ knowing (in some way) you should not but you do that ‘something’ anyway (e.g. ‘knew safety rules but ignored them and did it anyway’, or, ‘knew safety rules but did not keep them in mind when they did the act’) and I tend to think the trainee did not point the gun at their self with the intent to ignore ‘safety’ to shoot their self:
1. There’s nothing to indicate an intent thus without intent.
2. if there wasn’t intent then it was carelessness with an unfortunate result.
so I tend towards the use of ‘accidental’ here.
.40, good points to be sure. perhaps we’ll agree to disagree then.
I served for 13yrs as an expert witness for Fla. DoH. Those state attorneys schooled me on negligence and accidents as well as malpractice. Intent is a major player in all.
I come to the conclusion of negligence based on a simple test.
Could what has occurred been avoided by the participant(s) in the action(s) paying more attention or having been more focused to the task at hand ?
Then my perceptions as an instructor & RSO, and a practitioner of mindfulness shapes the conclusion.
For sure, there is no more perfect time to be very zen and “in the moment” as when you are handling firearms or even being on the periphery of anything involving firearms.
Could he have done something different (or differently) that would have prevented that fire from going off?
Only he (& any video capture) knows the answer.
My experiences tell me he wishes he could have changed one thing & he wouldn’t have shot himself.
“I come to the conclusion of negligence based on a simple test.
Could what has occurred been avoided by the participant(s) in the action(s) paying more attention or having been more focused to the task at hand ?”
Your question describes ‘accidental’.
To define ‘negligence’:
Could what has occurred been avoided by the participant(s) in the action(s) being mindful of paying attention or being more focused to the task at hand ?”
I’m a moderately experienced shooter (active military for ten years, hobby shooter for maybe 15), and also a medium-advanced grammarian. I believe “accidental” simply means not intentional. An accidental discharge can also be negligent, but not all accidents are necessarily negligent. I also believe that any discharge of a weapon is the sole responsibility/fault of the handler. I think one reason for this semantic debate is the mistaken belief by some that and “accident” means the perpetrator isn’t at fault.
“The second you start thinking that you’re safe enough, Murphy wakes up and starts looking for you.”
Amen to that. But then, Murphy’s Law also applies to Murphy. Otherwise none of us would be here. Seems like he gets a discount, though.
I’m from Joy-zee😀🤑🤣🤠
He shot himself in the leg And? Now on to Colion Noir showing what a buffoon shannon watts is, simply connect the h
h ttps://youtube.com/watch?v=JCM1rWzOry4&feature=shared
That’s why I use BLACKHAWK SERPA exclusively…
Think of it as evolution in action.
Does he get a Darwin award for shooting himself?
NO. He lived so no Darwin.
Did he say hold my beer?
This cop is a firearm instructor? This was absolutely a ND and should be written up as such,..but it won’t. If this was ordinary citizen LE would want to revoke his CCW and confiscate his firearms.
WAIT! Wait. The gun community has an established protocol in place for such an event. We have to find out which brand of holster the shooter was using. Then, we have to place all blame on the holster design or maker.
Now, some of you are saying “but this was training with a rifle.” You are obviously overlooking the simplicity of the holster-blame protocol. It does not have to factually matter that the shooter’s finger caused the negligent discharge.
Over under it was a P320?
That is what we are seeing more and more of in the accident incidents lately. Be a few more years before we can say if it’s a higher rate than anything else (need enough data for various averages)
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