Posted on 09/14/2005 9:54:28 PM PDT by PAR35
AUSTELL, Georgia (AP) -- A trainee at a state law enforcement academy was accidentally shot and killed by her instructor Tuesday during a classroom exercise, authorities said.
The police trainee was among about 30 students in the seventh week of a state-mandated 10-week training course at the North Central Georgia Law Enforcement Academy.
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Cobb County Police spokesman Dana Pierce said the veteran instructor was "very traumatized" and had to seek medical attention.
(Excerpt) Read more at cnn.com ...
From the Atlanta Journal Constitution (hope it's okay to post the entire articles)
http://www.ajc.com/metro/content/metro/cobb/0905/15cobbtrainee.html
Police trainer broke safety rules
Officials: Loaded gun was mistake
By DON PLUMMER, CHANDLER BROWN
The Atlanta Journal-Constitution
Published on: 09/15/05
A veteran firearms instructor violated two key safety rules when he brought a loaded gun into a Cobb County police academy, where he accidentally shot and killed a recruit Tuesday during demonstration on how to draw a pistol, officials said Wednesday.
Tara Drummond, a 23-year-old who hoped someday to become a detective, died Tuesday afternoon shortly after being hit in the chest by a single round, said Cobb Sheriff Neil Warren, who is leading an investigation of the shooting.
All ammunition is banned from the building, said Warren, who declined to release the instructor's name or any initial findings as to why he had the pistol. Warren provided no further details of how or why the gun fired.
Further, a state policy bans any working firearm — loaded or not — from academy classrooms, said Bob Sanderson, assistant director of the Georgia Public Safety Training Center in Forsyth. The state oversees the center in Austell and nine other regional police academies.
"In the classroom, they use what is called a red gun, models that are made of red, hard plastic that are replicas of actual handguns," he said.
The accident brought sympathy from many quarters, including a fellow training officer in Texas.
"The accident that took the life of Ms. Drummond is the worst fear any firearms instructor ever faces," said Sgt. Brandy Wise of the San Antonio Park police.
"Not only were her dreams and life cut short, but the lives of her family as well as her instructor will never be the same."
Drummond, a rookie at the Kennesaw Police Department, was in her seventh week of the 10-week training course.
She is the first Kennesaw officer to be killed on duty, spokesman Scott Luther said. Drummond began working for the 60-officer Kennesaw Police Department June 1 and started training Aug. 1. The shooting occurred during the first day of firearms instruction for 30 students, Warren said.
The instructor will remain on paid leave until an investigation by the sheriff, county police and Austell police is finished, Warren said.
The instructor was treated briefly following the shooting for unspecified medical symptoms and continued Wednesday to be under the care of a doctor, Warren said. The 25-year Cobb deputy sheriff has been assigned to the academy as an instructor for 10 years, Warren said.
The Austell academy is operated by Cobb County under a contract with the Georgia Public Safety Training Center, Sanderson said. The academy works with officers from Cobb, Paulding, Douglas, Cherokee, Pickens, Gilmer, Fannin and Carroll counties and for the cities of Alpharetta, Roswell and Villa Rica, Warren said.
The academy provides police candidates with the minimum 10 weeks of basic training required under Georgia law. Another 20 hours of training is required annually to maintain certification as a peace officer. Drummond lived with her parents in a two-story cottage in a modest neighborhood near Paulding County High School outside Dallas.
Family and friends embraced one another on the front porch Wednesday afternoon. A Kennesaw police officer posted in the front yard said the family was not talking to reporters. Through police, the family said funeral arrangements were incomplete.
At the Kennesaw police headquarters, about 25 miles northeast of the family's home, flags were lowered to half-staff in the officer's honor. "We are all just beside ourselves," Officer Scott Luther said.
Drummond was a "very professional, upbeat" recruit who longed to become a detective, Luther said.
"She had that goal and she was seeing to it that she met it," Luther said.
While waiting for the training class to start in early August, Drummond trained in the dispatch center and worked with the department's three detectives and their supervisor, Luther said.
"She wanted to see all aspects of the job," he said. "Everybody respected her. She's greatly missed."
I'm not sure I agree with your logic there. Yes, there are no telltale bullet holes in the sky over outdoor ranges, but that doesn't mean no one ever shoots in the wrong direction.
Is this guy gonna get his keister sued off or what.
3 words for that guy: IDIOT! IDIOT!! IDIOT!!! and oh, yes, FOOL!!!! Everybody was supposed to have those "red guns" right??? And if he didn't, he didn't even bother to check that it was empty??? This dolt deserves to be sued 9 ways from Sunday, and in fact should never be allowed to face the public with a gun if he can't even draw without shooting.
It will definitely be reflected in his next performance review.
HUA.........Thanks !
I guess he took you up on your suggestion. He hasn't been heard from since. Probably kind of busy.
They should be wearing their vests beginning in week six.
if there is wadding or material in the barrel at close range blanks can be deadly... ask brandon lee
It's important that negligence like this is rewarded with *hard time* to keep people even more highly motivated to avoid accidently killing co-workers.
culprit a cop... victim a cop... the revenge factor cancels out. he'll get probation.
Agreed. There is NO excuse for not clearing a weapon before using it in training.
How inappropriately ignorant and disrespectful about a tragic loss of life.
"if it goes into your eye, you're done."
Isn't that what happened in Boston, during that mini-melee after the Red Sox pennant victory? Not sure of what the event was, but some woman in the crowd was hit by some "non-lethal" projectile fired by cops and died as a result.
More accurately, "to an officer working FOR that that particular town, being shot BY a fellow officer while training as a police officer OUTSIDE of that particular town, where NO CITIZENS or oficers have been shot IN that particular town."
she was hit by a shotgun fired Bean bag projectile. Remenbering back to my days with the San Diego PD, we were taught to shoot them at the main body massexactly for that reason. a head shot with even a "Non Lethal" projectile can be lethal
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