Officer In D.C. Metropolitan Police Department Pointed Unloaded Gun At Head Of Another Officer And Dry Fired The Gun On Orders From His Sergeant
BY Herschel Smith
8 years, 8 months ago
WASHINGTON – An officer in the Metropolitan Police Department’s first district “dry-fired” an unloaded weapon at the head of another officer during a roll-call meeting on Saturday afternoon, possibly under orders from a sergeant as part of a training exercise, four MPD sources tell WUSA9.
Those sources say a Sergeant later told officers in the room that they had secretly ordered the officer to unload his weapon and then pretend to fire on his colleague as part of a “training exercise” on situational awareness. The officer then pulled the trigger of the unloaded weapon while pointing it at the head of an officer until it audibly clicked, the sources say.
Both the officer who allegedly fired the weapon and the sergeant who allegedly ordered him are assigned to regular duties, pending an internal affairs investigation, MPD spokesman Sean Hickman tells WUSA9.
“I can tell you there are about seven different versions of the incident that are out there,” MPD Chief Cathy Lanier told reporters on Monday. “I’m not sure which or how many of those that you’ve heard, but I prefer to wait until I see some facts and some direct statements of what happened before I make a judgment.”
Several MPD personnel who have heard of the incident, which has been widely discussed in police circles online and elsewhere since the weekend, say they are furious that such a training exercise might have been ordered.
Another officer could easily have drawn their weapon and killed the officer who dry-fired at their colleague. Some sources say at least one officer did pull his weapon on the officer during the confusing moments surrounding the incident.
“You shouldn’t be doing that kind of training. This is police academy 101. You do not pull your weapon out of your holster and display it, especially in a roomful of cops,” said Michael Tabman, a former Fairfax County police officer and FBI special agent.
Tabman ticked off multiple ways the scenario could have turned deadly, such as a round accidentally left chambered in the officer’s weapon, or another officer in the room opening fire to preemptively protect a colleague with a gun pointed at him.
“You just don’t put people in that fear and sort of invite tragedy, and that’s what this was—it was inviting tragedy. Thank goodness nothing happened,” Tabman said.
The rules of gun safety, one of which is observation of muzzle discipline, are based on a safety philosophy called “defense in depth.” Hundreds of articles can be found monthly where officers routinely point their firearms at citizens, many of whom are guilty of nothing at all. They have the mistaken notion that only their safety matters, and thus it’s acceptable to muzzle flag another person as long as that person is not another law enforcement officer. The same holds true for the idea of putting your finger on the trigger of the firearm. This is routinely done by law enforcement while pointing weapons at other people, one problem that has developed from this being negligent discharges when they are armed with handguns with a lighter trigger pull than previous service arms, or when armed with a handgun that doesn’t shoot DA/SA (like their previous service weapon) where the initial cycling of the trigger is harder and chambers the round as well as shoots it. See also here, here, here, here, here, here, here, here, here and many other instances.
The point isn’t to get into mechanical and tactical issues so much as it is to explain why police shoot their handguns when they shouldn’t. They have been poorly trained, and their concern isn’t for citizens – it is only for themselves. There is a problem with both training and intent. But in this instance we see stupidity on display for all to witness. Whoever ordered to this occur shouldn’t ever be allowed to own another weapon in his life, much less still be under the employ of a police department.
But the police are indignant in this case, their ox being the one that was gored. We also saw this in the article entitled The second deputy pointed the weapon at the first deputy and – apparently unaware the weapon was loaded – pulled the trigger.
On April 20, 2016 at 10:30 am, MrApple said:
Three words come to mind; “Highly trained professionals”.
On April 20, 2016 at 10:58 am, Archer said:
Also, “‘Only Ones’ trained and responsible enough” to own and/or carry firearms.
On April 20, 2016 at 10:59 am, MrApple said:
Agreed.
On April 20, 2016 at 6:16 pm, GenEarly said:
Reminds me of the BATFE agent who shot himself while giving a lecture on “Gunz” to skool childruns, while saying why he was allowed to have a gun being a highly trained professional.
Government Employees……….most are just leeches job sucking on the fat teat.
On April 21, 2016 at 8:11 am, L O said:
Not intending to steal your thunder….
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=eP6UvNgbqIA
On April 21, 2016 at 8:31 am, GenEarly said:
Not at all, I was just too lazy to look it up, thank you.
My take is it’s a lot more prudent to shoot a home invader, robber, or moosie terrorist than an officer enforcing laws that may be blatantly unconstitutional or worse yet a swat team that gets your address by mistake.
Governments have an impeccable record of killing off their own people.
On April 20, 2016 at 11:18 am, Damocles said:
Idiocy like this requires more than the average face palm. A super matte finish tactical face palm is necessary.
On April 20, 2016 at 11:38 am, Fred said:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=N1JcXEim40g
On April 20, 2016 at 12:43 pm, Blake said:
But cops will not follow orders to seize guns…after all, they have to live in the community also….
On April 21, 2016 at 9:58 am, MAS said:
Don’t bet on it…history proves otherwise. I’d say some will not follow those orders but most will.
On April 21, 2016 at 10:36 am, Fred said:
The state will have zero problem finding millions that will take, torture and kill for it’s glory. History shows us.
On April 21, 2016 at 10:38 am, Blake said:
Evidently, the sarcasm was missed by some people.
On April 21, 2016 at 10:40 am, Fred said:
That would be me.
On April 21, 2016 at 11:28 am, Archer said:
Look up Poe’s Law. (I don’t care for that article’s conflation of “fundamentalism” with “extremism”, but the gist is accurate.)
You have to mark your sarcasm or satire online, or someone (perhaps a lot of someones) will think you’re being serious.
On April 21, 2016 at 4:21 pm, BigGaySteve said:
This is a story from DC, there are no legal guns to seize.
On April 20, 2016 at 12:50 pm, Jack Crabb said:
The sheer stupidity of the magic-blue-costumed ones never fails to amaze me. I should know by know that they are not among the brightest of human beings, but…
At this point all I can do is shake my head.
On April 20, 2016 at 5:26 pm, Jeffersonian said:
What if this wasn’t stupidity? What if this, and the “No More Hesitation” targets, are deliberate desensitization exercises to make police more willing to murder who they’re *told* to murder?
On April 20, 2016 at 6:22 pm, Ned Weatherby said:
Wow. Interesting proposition.
On April 21, 2016 at 12:31 pm, Jack Crabb said:
One does not necessarily exclude the other.
On April 21, 2016 at 4:23 pm, BigGaySteve said:
Maybe the people defecating in the hallways at the EPA couldn’t figure out witch bathroom to use.
On April 20, 2016 at 6:20 pm, Ned Weatherby said:
Perhaps many Only Ones practice BoogerHookerism, and just can’t stop. Why do these cases keep popping up? Unreal.
On April 21, 2016 at 7:31 am, Dan Hardesty said:
This should be a wake up call for those that think our “protectors” will disobey any/all orders to fire on innocent civilians, should that occur for whatever reason.
On April 21, 2016 at 8:08 am, L O said:
And Liberals think they are the only ones who should have guns….what a scary thought.
On April 21, 2016 at 9:19 am, Diane Dina said:
Grandma was right, ‘You can’t fix stupid’.
On April 21, 2016 at 9:55 am, MAS said:
Retired LEO here. Most would be shocked at how often the lack of proper training and personal motivation to get better is a reality. I knew of two Deputies (females) who would not load their sidearms because they “would never actually shoot anyone”. Or the folk who could not pass the qualifications at range time without several attempts. Most are at least relatively proficient and some are quite skilled but those that aren’t are also there.
Nope ladies and gentlemen keep your arms and train regularly with them. LEOs cannot be everywhere at all times…thank God.
On April 21, 2016 at 11:01 am, DNA Explains It All said:
Given how many innocents these heros are now killing a year perhaps a little fratricide isn’t such a bad thing. Anything to cull the herd of killer, poorly trained costumed extortionists is kinda cool with me.
On April 21, 2016 at 12:42 pm, Jakob Stagg said:
Didn’t Hitler demand unquestioned obedience from his underlings? We saw how that worked out.
On July 18, 2016 at 6:51 pm, Michael Jones said:
wtf