St. Joseph police officer dies because of weapon errors
Kansascity.com
St. Joseph MO Sept 23 2010 A St. Joseph policeman killed last week had asked another officer to shoot him with a plastic training round so he would know how it felt, the department said.
But the other officer didn’t realize he was using a real gun with live ammunition, according to a department statement released Wednesday.
Officer Dan De Kraai died at a hospital shortly after being shot in the back. St. Joseph police expect to forward a report about the shooting to Buchanan County prosecutors within a week for review.
“Clearly, this accident should not have happened, and the application of safety rules was not sufficient to prevent an otherwise very preventable tragedy,” the police statement said.
The incident happened Sept. 15 while De Kraai and Officer Jason Strong were on break during a training session. Instead of live ammunition, police said, officers used a training round called Simunition, a type of plastic projectile.
But when the two men went to a convenience store to get a drink during their break, they took their regular weapons with them, the department said.
The shooting happened upon their return, outside the unoccupied school where the police had been training.
Typically, instructors or safety officers check each officer before letting him or her into the training area, making sure they haven’t accidentally brought in real weapons or ammunition.
Other agencies in the Kansas City area said they follow this type of protocol, too.
The St. Joseph shooting occurred before the men resumed training, police said, so they hadn’t been checked again.
“Officer Strong failed to realize he had not transitioned back to a Simunitions-modified weapon,” the police statement said.
It isn’t clear how common deaths like this are. The Officer Down Memorial Page, a website that tracks the line-of-duty deaths of law-enforcement officers nationwide, lists De Kraai’s death as one of only two caused by accidental gunfire in 2010.
There are only a few such cases each year, and they don’t necessarily happen during training.
De Kraai, who was hired by the St. Joseph department in 2006, was married and had a young daughter. He served on the department’s special-response team and was an evidence technician and a field training officer. His memorial service was last weekend.
Strong, who also serves on the special response team and received the Medal of Valor earlier this year, is still on administrative leave. The department is conducting an internal affairs investigation of the matter.
It’s not clear when that report will be completed, but the department said it will be a large undertaking.
St. Joseph police described the Simunition projectile as “painful,” but not lethal. Regular weapons can fire Simunition cartridges, but only after a modification that prevents them from firing real ammunition.
De Kraai had asked to be shot with a Simunition round so he could experience it before he got hit during training, the police statement said. That training was designed to prepare officers for dealing with hostage situations or school shootings.
Some departments, including the Johnson County Sheriff’s Office and Kansas City police, use training weapons that are painted bright colors, as another way to prevent mix-ups.
It isn’t clear whether St. Joseph uses gear like that. A police spokesman could not be reached to elaborate on Wednesday’s statement.
Kansas City police currently use a type of airsoft gun with orange markings for the department’s training simulations, said Capt. Rich Lockhart. Several years ago, the department used real weapons with fake ammunition, but stopped after a sergeant was shot in the hand during training.
If prosecutors and courts give this cop no punishment in prison, then it's open season on cops, as required by Equal Protection doctrine in the US Constitution and States constitutions. After all, prosecutors and judges said its OK for cops to shoot anybody they want, even innocent drivers:
Florida Trooper Fires Nine Rounds in Retirement Center Area After His Car Is Innocently Bumped — But Is Given Only One Week Suspension
A Florida Highway Patrol trooper was given only a one-week suspension without pay after he fired nine rounds at a vehicle that bumped his cruiser. In the incident caught on this videotape, Trooper Timothy E. Nichols was responding to a call about a man suspected of stealing two bacon, egg and cheese sandwiches from a Palm Harbor gas station. However, an investigation showed that (as indicated on the video) the driver was innocently backing up his SUV when the bumping of the cruiser occurred — triggering Nichols’ shower of bullets.
Agency director John T. Czernis ruled that the force was obviously excessive, but only saw fit to suspend the officer.
When Nichols caught up with Magdi Kanaan, 22, in a parking area and Kanaan put his SUV in reverse, bumping Nichols’ cruiser. Nichols is heard screaming, “He just backed into my car.” He then fired nine rounds at the SUV in the retirement center area.
Highway Patrol internal affairs investigators determined Kanaan was simply trying to park. Czernis wrote ‘[y]our recollection of the events contradicts the evidence on the videotape from your patrol car.”
Nichols later admitted that events may not have occurred as he initially recollected.
Since Nichols started work with the department on Sept. 10, 2001, he has been orally reprimanded, counseled or cited at least eight times according to press reports — including two incidents of crashing into cars of citizens.
The question remains why there is not a more substantial punishment for an officer who (the internal affairs report) fires his weapon in a retirement center after a man innocently bumps his car.
Freakin psychos.
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