Venice (FL) PD officer Billy Masters was suspended without pay after he shot his 5 year old stepson at the department shooting range while attempting to clean a loaded pistol. Masters’ Glock 23 (G23) was apparently still had a live round in the chamber when he attempted to disassemble the pistol. The round was fired and struck his stepson in the hip.
For those that don’t know, in order to field strip a Glock, the operator must pull the trigger to disengage the sear before the slide lock can be disengaged and the slide removed from the frame. Obviously, the operator needs to remove the magazine and make sure the chamber is unloaded before doing this, since pulling the trigger will result in any chambered round to be fired. Somehow, this officer couldn’t deduce this concept.
I’ve witnessed incidents (and heard of incidents from reliable sources) of firearms safety violations where the violator was warned, and their response was something to the nature of, “I’m a cop so I know what I’m doing.” Sometimes the violator will simply respond with, “I’m a cop.” That may be so, but that doesn’t excuse anyone, police officer or otherwise, from safe and proper firearms and range safety procedure.
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