Posted on 05/07/2008 5:23:02 AM PDT by 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."
I remember that video well, I had to laugh when the guy was trying to use it as a lesson to the kids on how dangerous guns were.
He was an idiot, that is for sure.
LOL
Okay, if I am in the vicinity and you shoot yourself between the laughs I will yell that!...
Exactly what was practiced when my 13 year-old and I went through Hunter Safety a couple of weeks ago.
Sounds like 95% of the police chiefs in the whole country.
“Students who were screaming “Officer down!” were urged to call 911.”
Now that is funny! Especially since he shot himself.
They called 911 while in the police station, I had to laugh at that.
I can just imagine the local Sheriffs Department getting that 911 call, all the deputies just looking at each other hoping they aren’t the first to crack a smile...
“They called 911 while in the police station, I had to laugh at that.”
Yea, they didn’t even get to turn on their sirens and lights and drive like maniacs either.
Same here. Pretty darn funny stuff.
This is not a skill that careful people practice. Not knowing to unload the pistol is inexcusable. That's the first thing of all!
LOL My first thought when I read this was- Barney Fife made chief?
Like this one? (Cop Tasers Hisself)
Nah, he's probably diabetic and needs to lean into it in order to rack the slide due to the neuropathy in his fingertips.
Ah, the first mistake.
Exactly.
Want to bet?? They probably ran outside, jumped into their patrol cars, circled the block 3 times with the sirens blaring, parked and ran back in.
This whole episode sounds like a modern Keystone Kops movie.
My dad got a job at a metal fabrication plant when he was young. His boss showed him around the shop and explained the safety features of each of the machines. When he got to the bandsaw he said "you should always treat the bandsaw like it was running and don't do this." He swiped his hand across the blade of the running bandsaw, cleanly sawing off his little finger.
My dad said he never forgot that lesson and was always careful around the saws. It goes to show the value of a memorable training experience.
Given the circumstances of who was involved, where it happened and how it happened — this is inexcusable on many levels...
This clown should be disarmed, immediately.
All firearms should be consider loaded and off safety - until YOU verify otherwise.
All firearms should be carefully unloaded PRIOR to doing anything other that shooting it.
All firearms should be pointed in a SAFE direction - until you’re ready to fire at someone or something.
Don’t insert finger onto trigger until you’re ready to shoot.
Unloaded firearms have an uncanny ability to kill careless folks.
I always check every firearm I remove from my vault to ensure it’s unloaded, even though I KNOW I place each one of them in the vault unloaded — except for the pistol hung just inside the vault door for addressing a forced opening of the vault.. Firearms in my home are ALWAYS loaded.
Well, I’m sure the chief has had ample time to consider the error of his ways, but the fact is that there really are only two sorts of folks out there: those who have experienced an ND, and those who are going to.
This all reminds me of an article that Louis Awerbuck wrote for Swat magazine a couple of years back, in which he described dry fire practice in his garage. He chamber checked, saw the brass, and proceeded to “dry” fire, with predicatble results. Brain fart. His point was, hey, next time, don’t laugh: it could happen to you. Difference with Louis was he was paying attention to Cooper’s OTHER three rules, and all he wound up with was a dent in a cinder-block wall.
What strikes me is that this was the chief, providing a ccw class. My own boss doesn’t even issue the darn things to ordinary non-celebrity folks, let alone teach the class. I think this guy’s heart was in the right place, and that he got complacent, and will probably not “re-offend”.
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