Collegedale Police Officer Accidentally Fires Department-Issued AR-15 Inside City Hall Building
BY Herschel Smith
4 years, 7 months ago
Only the best and brightest for cops in Tennessee.
A Collegedale police officer’s department-issued AR-15 was fired inside the City Hall building last week.
Officer Josh Booth was in the department’s armory at around 9 a.m. when he was “starting to look” at Sgt. Burlon Hayworth’s department-issued AR-15 assault weapon.
The weapon had already been taken apart when Booth received it, Booth wrote in an incident report.
“I attempted to do a weapon check,” he wrote.
But due to a rusted bolt, he was unable to clear the chamber.
Booth then started to put the weapon back together, and as he pushed the pieces together, “it caused the weapon to fire a round that was in the chamber,” Booth wrote.
“The round went through the wall, and into the squad room and hit a cabinet where it was stopped,” he added.
So many failures. Rusted bolt. Chambered round. Handling firearms away from the range like that, or away from at least gunsmiths who could have done this safely.
I suspect the firing pin was protruding out of the bolt and he slapped the upper and lower together with enough force to cause at least a light primer strike.
Only the best and brightest.
On March 29, 2020 at 9:04 pm, Michael said:
Good thing he was wearing a costume. A mere “civilian” would have had a much more difficult time explaining this one away. Who doesn’t triple check firearms prior to disassembly to be sure that the chamber is empty? It takes a special kind of stupid to reassemble a firearm with a ROUND ALREADY CHAMBERED! I admit that I’m not a gunsmith or an engineer, but I would certainly hire one if I found myself in a situation like this. It is beyond me that people assume that all police are firearms “experts”, though, to be fair, I do know several who are.
On March 29, 2020 at 9:51 pm, X said:
“Weapons of war do not belong on our streets”
“Only trained military and law enforcement are qualified to have guns”
“Nobody NEEDS a semi-automatic killing machine”
“Campuses are gun-free zones”
HAAAAAAAA….
On March 29, 2020 at 9:56 pm, TheAlaskan said:
“Weapons of war do not belong on our streets”
They certainly do….especially if they have them.
On March 29, 2020 at 10:37 pm, Archer said:
“it caused the weapon to fire a round that was in the chamber”
All by its own self? Why is it always the gun’s fault when a police weapon unintentionally discharges?
Being department issue, statistically speaking (based on department contracts) it’s probably a Colt AR-15, and his sidearm is probably either a Glock or a Smith & Wesson.
From how police NDs are reported, a potential buyer could be forgiven for concluding that nobody should ever purchase these companies’ firearms, that the track record of them “just going off” on their own makes them inherently dangerous, and that you should not keep them around.
How about that, Colt, S&W, and Glock? Police departments all across the country blame your products for their officers’ NDs, and the media repeats that blame . Are you gonna let that stand unchallenged? Are you going to stop selling to departments that lay all the responsibility on your products, and file libel and/or slander lawsuits against those agencies and their media parrots?
Or should the rest of the American people assume those claims are true and stop buying your “unsafe” firearms?
On March 30, 2020 at 7:06 am, Fred said:
I suspect that he pulled the trigger when nothing else seemed to work. They are that bright.
Note to those less familiar since there are and will be lots of new gun owners coming online: If you are unable to ascertain if a round is in the chamber of any weapon because the bolt is “frozen” or for any other reason: STOP. Call a gunsmith. Get help. And don’t let your weapons rust.
On March 30, 2020 at 7:54 am, ragman said:
And these are the same ignorant a-holes that will attempt to steal our lawfully owned weapons sometime in the future. They violated the most basic firearm handling procedures. They are a threat to themselves and others. They should immediately be fired and must never handle a firearm again. Thank God their stupidity didn’t result in an injury or death.
On March 30, 2020 at 8:18 am, penses said:
“City Hall closed to the public Tuesday, according to a news release. The closure is in response to the COVID-19 pandemic.” The people that would have been in the area should thank God. One life saved by the flu.
If you cannot field strip a weapon down to its basic parts and put it back together you don’t have any business handling the weapon. Blaming it on the rust is doublespeak for “I don’t have a clue what I’m doin.” An armory without any lubricant to solve the problem…or just one dumba– cop. Just another reason for never, ever, calling the police.
In basic training the DIs would have been all over this fool in a heartbeat. The “Barney Fife police academies” are putting them on the street in assembly line fashion with what amounts to no training. And they put these idiots on rooftops during peaceful protests by law-abiding citizens.
Shot by police in 2020: 213
On March 30, 2020 at 8:42 am, Longbow said:
His whole story is weak. He fucked up and had an ND.
“…bolt rusted shut…”, my ass!
But hey, unlike you mere mortals with no excuse, he MEANT WELL when he had his ND. Its a dangerous profession… little appreciation… high stress… low pay… thin blue like…. and… kryptonite!
So there!
On March 30, 2020 at 9:05 am, penses said:
And don’t forget the chemical abuse [steroids, speed, sleeping pills] by the police that would get anyone else arrested. And after that “hard day” handing out traffic tickets and eating donuts they go home and beat their wives
On March 30, 2020 at 11:18 am, MTHead said:
Bullshit! Fred’s right. He pulled the trigger. That’s the only way to get an AR to fire. The firing pin is protected from being struck with anything except the hammer. You can put the gun back together with the hammer up. But there wouldn’t be enough force striking the firing pin. It’s all bullshit.
On March 30, 2020 at 5:29 pm, TRX said:
Hey! Give the man a break!
At least he didn’t claim he was “cleaning it.”