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Cop kills woman during role playing demonstration.

theprestige said:
Best practice is to never assume a firearm is unloaded. Proper equipment would be dummy weapons or similar, in place of "unloaded" firearms.
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As I recall, back long long ago when I was a Boy Scout, there was a rifle range at camp, at which we shot "moskeet" small clay pigeons with 22 bird shot. Which, by the way, was tremendous fun. My recollection is that we were taught two basic rules from which one must never deviate. The first is that you never point a gun at anything you do not intend to shoot, and at anyone you do not intend to kill. The second is that you start with the assumption that all guns are always loaded.

That seemed to work pretty well.
 
Unforgivable negligence based on a total disregard of the most basic firearms safety principles. Worst of all the PD confirmed that the same weapon used to kill the victim had been used in other citizen's academy classes. They have been pointing actual firearms at innocent civilians in "simulations" for quite some time now. They are not sure when and how the gun was loaded. That suggests to me that none of the officers who handled it ever checked the weapon.
 
theprestige said:
Does the prosecutor have any discretion, or must they bring charges and pursue a conviction?

If the role play was sanctioned by the department, would the cop still be fired? Or would guilt rest on his superiors?

Would the firing be required by law or regulation? Or would it be at the discretion of the department head or some other overseeing entity?

Would the cop be entitled to an investigation into the matter, and a hearing on his behalf, before the firing?
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Again, I'm no lawyer, but I think that in cases where there is person killed, state must bring charges. There is probably dividing line somewhere, but that line would divide into cases where state must, and where state can not.
Only cases where state can decide not to bring charges is where it thinks it does not have enough evidence, ie case is in state of investigation. It can be then postponed until new evidence is found, which usually mean indefinitely.
As for the police, I think they would not fire the cop by themselves, only after he the court would resolve things.
 
Dr.Sid said:
Again, I'm no lawyer, but I think that in cases where there is person killed, state must bring charges.
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No with any death like this it is prosecutors discretion. If you shoot and kill someone by doing cowboy gun tricks you may or may not be prosecuted in Florida. There have been cases where people have been and ones that the prosecutor said basically it is OK unless you are drunk.

So it all depends on the prosecutor. I think it is fairly unlikely in this case, you have the leeway traditionally granted to cops, the need for prosecutors to maintain good relationships with the department and not wanting to lose a case when the jury will give a cop the benefit of the doubt.
 
Are people really that stupid? I mean come on! He's a cop! Why do you need a real gun in a role play?
 
Noztradamus said:
Mentally equipped. They actually had a role play gun, which ideally shouldn't have had any live rounds available anywhere in the building. The Chief says they had "protocols", but protocols have to be used to work against stupidity and carelessness.
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If they are not mentally equipped to role play a crime then they are NOT MENTALLY EQUIPPED TO BE POLICE OFFICERS! If they cannot unload a gun, cannot turn on the safety, and cannot keep their fingers off the triggers, then they cannot safely serve as law enforcement officers.

ETA
And even if one is using an unloaded weapon as part of a role play, there is no reason to point the weapon directly at a person - pointing the weapon in a person's direction without actually pointing the weapon at the person's vital organs is a perfectly acceptable way of adding another layer of safety.
 
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Ladewig said:
If they are not mentally equipped to role play a crime then they are NOT MENTALLY EQUIPPED TO BE POLICE OFFICERS! If they cannot unload a gun, cannot turn on the safety, and cannot keep their fingers off the triggers, then they cannot safely serve as law enforcement officers.

ETA
And even if one is using an unloaded weapon as part of a role play, there is no reason to point the weapon directly at a person - pointing the weapon in a person's direction without actually pointing the weapon at the person's vital organs is a perfectly acceptable way of adding another layer of safety.
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The police were using a real revolver (no safety) that they thought was loaded with blanks. The cop intended to fire at a civilian, just not to discharge a bullet. I can't imagine that their deadly little exercise was recommended or certified by any recognized authority. And the cop had previously been fired for misconduct by another small-town department.
http://www.nbcnews.com/news/us-news...uring-citizen-police-academy-training-n626956
http://www.tampabay.com/news/public...-librarian-had-been-ousted-by-miramar/2289035
 
Bob001 said:
The police were using a real revolver (no safety) that they thought was loaded with blanks. The cop intended to fire at a civilian, just not to discharge a bullet. I can't imagine that their deadly little exercise was recommended or certified by any recognized authority. And the cop had previously been fired for misconduct by another small-town department.
http://www.nbcnews.com/news/us-news...uring-citizen-police-academy-training-n626956
http://www.tampabay.com/news/public...-librarian-had-been-ousted-by-miramar/2289035
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And none of that should be surprising.
 
Bob001 said:
The police were using a real revolver (no safety) that they thought was loaded with blanks. The cop intended to fire at a civilian, just not to discharge a bullet. I can't imagine that their deadly little exercise was recommended or certified by any recognized authority. And the cop had previously been fired for misconduct by another small-town department.
http://www.nbcnews.com/news/us-news...uring-citizen-police-academy-training-n626956
http://www.tampabay.com/news/public...-librarian-had-been-ousted-by-miramar/2289035
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Yes.
They were not mentally equipped to be police officers.

And to elaborate on my ETA, given that people have been hurt by having blanks fired at them, pointing the gun to the side would have provided an added level of safety.
 
arthwollipot said:
Tragic accidents can occur even under the strictest of gun control.
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No, accidents only hapen when you do not have strict control over your gun. You are just attempting to justify poor gun control.
 
If they wanted to add a certain amount of realism to the demonstration by having the sound of a gunshot, there are safer ways to do so.

A cap gun comes to mind. You get the bang without any possiblity of a projectile and they typically look like a gun, but the difference is obvious enough that you couldn't accidentally switch it with a real gun. And they're cheap.
 
Unfortunately, this is not the first time that someone was killed with an unloaded weapon and it sure will not be the last time that someone is killed with an unloaded weapon.
 
Crossbow said:
Unfortunately, this is not the first time that someone was killed with an unloaded weapon and it sure will not be the last time that someone is killed with an unloaded weapon.
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Let's just note that this was NOT an "unloaded" weapon. The cops knew it was loaded, they intended it to be loaded; they were just confused about what it was loaded with. They deliberately pointed a real, loaded gun at a person and pulled the trigger.
 
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Bob001 said:
Let's just note that this was NOT an "unloaded" weapon. The cops knew it was loaded, they intended it to be loaded; they were just confused about what it was loaded with. They deliberately pointed a real, loaded gun at a person and pulled the trigger.
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Seems hard to believe they would intentionally fire a blank round at a person.

Blank rounds are not risk free. There are a few ways to be killed by a blank round, as a couple of actors found out, by dying.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Jon-Erik_Hexum#Death

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Brandon_Lee#Death
 
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