"Four Rules" Gun Safety Failure By State Police Firearms Instructor Leaves PA Trooper Dead

Trooper David Kedra was shot and killed by a negligent police firearms instructor.

 

Trooper David Kedra was shot and killed by a negligent police firearms instructor.
Trooper David Kedra was shot and killed by a negligent police firearms instructor.

A firearms instructor working with the Pennsylvania State Police violated numerous rules of gun safety during annual training yesterday, and was responsible for the tragic death of a young Pennsylvania State Trooper.

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A Pennsylvania state police officer who was fatally wounded in an accidental shooting at a Plymouth Twp. firing range has been identified.

The trooper is identified as 26-year-old David Kedra.

“It’s with an extremely heavy heart and deep sorrow that I announce the tragic death of Trooper David Kedra of Troop K, Skippack station,” State Police Commissioner Frank Noonan said in a statement Tuesday night.

According to Noonan, Trooper Kedra was shot in the chest during a training exercise at the Montgomery County Public Safety Training Complex on the 1100 block of Conshohocken Road around 4:45 p.m.

Action News is told it was an instructor who accidentally fired the shot that struck the trooper.

We’re not likely find out the specific details any time soon, but these things we know for certain.

A firearms instructor took  a loaded weapon, pointed it in an unsafe direction, and pulled the trigger.

This is not an “accidental” death that the the media is reporting. This is a negligent shooting that became a negligent homicide.

As someone who does a bit of firearms instruction when I have the opportunity, it personally infuriates me that a firearms instructor is responsible for Trooper Kedra’s death. When we put on an instructor’s hat (literally or figuratively), we’re taking on the responsibility of keeping everyone on that firing line as safe as possible. We take great pains to ensure that the range itself and courses of fire are as safe as possible, and that each student and fellow instructor acts as safely as possible. A negligent shooting of a student by an instructor is perhaps the gravest of all possible sins, and it is because of this that instructors in the public sector are strongly condemned when they act in an unsafe manner.

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We’re supposed to be role models and mentors. Instead, the instructor in this incident turned out to be a fatal threat.

Our prayers go out to the family and friends of Trooper Kedra, and we hope that the Pennsylvania State Police give a full and public accounting of the failures that lead to his demise.

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