Students claim police chief who shot himself was careless

Ap via Yahoo ^ | Tue May 6, 2008

[Abathar]

RIVERDALE, Utah - The police chief who shot himself in the ankle was waving a loaded pistol and being careless, according to two students who were attending his class to qualify for a concealed-weapons permit. "We were told the gun is the chief's personal sidearm, but it looked to me like he didn't know anything about the gun," Lewis Walker said.

Bart Ulm, another student seeking certification to carry a concealed weapon, said he was surprised Chief Dave Hansen was using a loaded gun to show how it worked.

"Right then, I was very leery, because there's no need to have live ammo in a gun in the class. But I figured he's the chief, so he must know what he's doing," Ulm told the Standard-Examiner of Ogden.

Hansen held the Glock 40 under a table to disassemble it when a bullet fired, Walker said.

The chief cried, "I'm hit," and fell over. Students who were screaming "Officer down!" were urged to call 911.

The gun went off in a conference room Saturday at Riverdale police headquarters.

Hansen was taken to McKay-Dee Hospital in Ogden for surgery and released Monday, Lt. James Ebert said.

Ebert said the findings of an internal investigation would be announced Wednesday. He declined to offer specifics but disputed the accounts of Ulm and Walker, describing the pair as "disgruntled."

Other students "did not share that feeling" about the chief, Ebert told The Associated Press.

Walker said he didn't have confidence in the investigation.

"I think Riverdale police are just trying to keep this quiet and act like the chief is a hero. But if you ask me, he's really stupid," Walker said. "His state certification to teach concealed-weapons classes should be taken away from him. This was totally gross negligence."

Ulm said there was a moment of levity during the emergency.

He said an officer at the scene joked that "instead of shooting himself, he should have used the Taser."

[antihannityguy]

I think you missed a step. The first step in weapons cleaning is to check the serial number to make sure you are not cleaning someone else’s weapon.

[Eaker]

I made it through this last weekends shoot with nothing more than a dog bite.

I am doing better!

[glock rocks]

That's kinda sad Squantos. I always sorta liked Eaker.

Anyway, here's the locals' reactions to the chief shootin himself in his own foot... Hmmm. I seem to recollect that in my first combat class they cleared every weapon and no ammo was allowed. Stands to reason that if there's no ammo in the room, then the Glocks won't go boom.

Of course, then again, I'm just a country farm kid, and those trainers worked for Miami-Dade. What'd I know?

[Eaker]

That's kinda sad Squantos. I always sorta liked Eaker.

Me too ...........

;<)

[glock rocks]

I need to add that in my previous comment, the link to the local Utah TV station’s forum page adds a whole order of magnitude to the expression: “dumb as a post”

[rgboomers]

By Golly, you are right!

[Travis McGee]

Yeah, I’m busted!

[hiredhand]

My wife was reading about this chief today somewhere. She's a shooter herself, but me and one son in particular tend to clean all the weapons. She said, "In all the years you all have done supremely stupid things (won't mention them here!), you all have NEVER accidentally discharged a firearm, much less SHOT YOURSELF. WTF is wrong with this idiot!?"

I told her he was a Darwin Award waiting to happen. Sheesh...loaded weapon in the classroom?! I suppose in this case (from what I've read) that this was a major case of "...pride cometh before the fall."

[glock rocks]

Yep... sort of like the ATF Professional who shot up the classroom...

[hiredhand]

The guy with the dreadlocks? I saw him. Just after he told the kids to NEVER play with guns, because he was a QUALIFIED, TRAINED PROFESSIONAL, he pulled the trigger and *BANG*. My 13 yr old was watching it with me and when the moron racked the slide and only THEN removed the magazine! My son said, "WHOAH! He just charged it!" We knew what was going to happen after that.

...idgits I tell ya!

[punster]

I talked to some of my friends and acquaintences, who are law enforcement firearms instructors, and go additional information about the problem with some police officers and firears.

There does seem to be an unfortunate widespread problem with police being less than competent with their firearms. The problem stems from a lot of police officers believing they are carrying the service pistol, only because they are required to do so. They even have a rather strong antipathy for carry a weapon.

[Squantos]

Too funny ...........that Reno 911 is a classic !

My favorite episode was when the man talked the deputies into shooting his dog......then the neighbor ran out chewing their ass for shooting her dog as the man walked away laughing......