The Only Ones Professional Enough...

A police officer discharged his AR-15 yesterday while showing off for a judge in a Miami courthouse. Did I say “showing off?”

I meant to say that he had a dangerous negligent discharge with a live round during a training exercise:

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A Miami-Dade Police Officer, according to police, was demonstrating a scenario to a judge during a training exercise on the 30th floor of the Lawson E. Thomas Courthouse around 10:30 a.m. Wednesday when he accidentally fired a single shot from his department-issued rifle, an AR-15.

The bullet hit the floor, leaving a hole about the size of a fingertip in the carpet near a sofa in the hallway.

No one was hurt. In fact, several people in the building at the time told CBS4 they didn’t even hear the shot.

A sign in the courthouse lobby warns law enforcement officers to secure their firearms in gun lockers if they’re there on personal business.

The cop in this instance was there on official training business.

This was not an “accident.” This was gross negligence.

If he was indeed “training” he should have been using either a realistic airsoft rifle, so-called “blue gun,” or a rifle modified to fire only UTM or Simunition man-marker rounds. That he was using a functional rifle, chambered live ammunition, and discharged it during a training scenario in a populated building in downtown Miami is terrifying.

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In my mind this constitutes a firing offense. The officer who fired the round and the training officer should both be handing in their badges. Further, I’d suggest that the MPD suspend all training scenarios until they can thoroughly examine their procedures to determine how this was allowed to happen.

Am I being too harsh?

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