Police Corporal Charged In Firearms Training Accident That Killed State Trooper
BY Herschel Smith
9 years, 10 months ago
A Pennsylvania state police corporal was arrested Tuesday on reckless endangerment charges in a firearms training accident that claimed the life of a state trooper.
Cpl. Richard Schroeter, 43, was conducting a training session Sept. 30 and pulled the trigger on his firearm while discussing the weapon’s mechanism, prosecutors said. The gun discharged, killing 26-year-old Trooper David Kedra.
Prosecutors said they asked a grand jury to consider charges of homicide, involuntary manslaughter and reckless endangering. The panel found sufficient evidence that Schroeter, although a highly qualified firearms instructor, recklessly endangered those present, they said.
“Schroeter breached routine, yet critical, safety protocol by failing to visually and physically check to ensure his weapon was unloaded, failing to obtain confirmation from another that his firearm was not loaded, and failing to point his weapon away from the direction of everyone present (including Trooper Kedra),” Montgomery County District Attorney Risa Vetri Ferman said in a statement explaining the five reckless endangerment counts.
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Kedra’s sister, Christine Kedra, spoke with NBC10 Tuesday and said she was outraged by the decision to only charge Schroeter with reckless endangerment.
“He willfully chose not to check the chamber of his firearm,” Christine Kedra said. “He then pointed his gun directly at my brother’s chest and he deliberately pulled the trigger.”
Schroeter obviously wasn’t the “highly qualified firearms instructor” he was made out to be. There is no doubt that Schroeter bears the brunt of the responsibility, but I wonder about a police training academy that authorizes such men to conduct firearms training. Do they bear some of the responsibility? No one I know would point a weapon at another man and pull the trigger – relying on an empty chamber to save the potential victim. What kind of a police department calls this man a “highly qualified firearms instructor?”
Folks, learn and practice firearms rules of safety. Empty the chamber (but assume it’s loaded), keep your booger hook off the bang switch, point the weapon down range (and only down range) and know your backstop. It’s all so simple, isn’t it?
On February 12, 2015 at 3:02 pm, Jack Crabb said:
Remember, it is usually policy that one can be too smart to be a pig. The corollary is that pigs are stupid.
I share the same opinion of police held by our host. I am just a lot more crude about it than the Captain.
On February 12, 2015 at 3:23 pm, Pat Hines said:
The family of the dead man could and should sue the department for employing such an obviously unqualified person, that’s contributory negligence.
On February 12, 2015 at 10:14 pm, gyrwan said:
Anyone (who isn’t an LEO) think they could do something stupid, cause someone’s death by that stupidity, and then be prosecuted ONLY with reckless endangerment?
From Black’s Law Dictionary:
Reckless Endangerment — The criminal offense of putting another person at substantial risk of death or serious injury.
Others present at the time that Cpl. Schroeder had his “accident” were placed at risk of death or serious injury. Trooper Kedra, on the other hand, was not “AT RISK” of jack shit … he was shot …. dead.
BTW, that is a homicide. By definition. Homicide is not a criminal charge, it is a factual event. One person killed by another person = homicide. That homicide could be charged as manslaughter or murder, or be justified by self-defense. A homicide cannot be charged as reckless endangerment as the word “risk” necessarily means a thing which could have happened, but didn’t. A homicide is a thing that happened or did not happen, there’s no more “risk” of death for Trooper Kedra ….. he dead.