Austin LEO Killed

[Jeff Rambo]

No details on this one yet, but from what I've heard so far, last night an Arlington, TX officer was killed in result of another officer discharging his weapon during a school-hostage practice situation.

My condolences to the family, friends, and fellow offiers.

SWAT1- Thanks for clarification, although I wish it could of been on a more pleasurful note.

[This message has been edited by Jeff Rambo (edited 06-09-2001).]

[Swat1]

Received this today from my SWAT Group. Every time I see an email message from CATO I know it is bad news. They double wammied us today with a 9th circuit court of idiots ruling concerning bean bags being excessive use of force and this very tragic news.

My condolences to the family, agency and brothers and sisters in blue.

Swat1*

Message Forwarded via the CATO "Hot Line" SWAT Communication Network.

To: CATO Members, All SWAT Group

_________________

TX Officer Shot, Killed During Training

Arlington, TX - 6/8/2001

Dallas Morning News


A 26-year-old police officer died Thursday after another officer
accidentally shot him in the head during
a training exercise at a junior high school, authorities said.

Cpl. Joseph Cushman, the department's 1998 Rookie of the Year, was
shot at 6:24 p.m. at Ousley
Junior High School in southeast Arlington. He and another officer
were both armed and demonstrating
to SWAT team trainees how to react to a gunman in a public place,
police said.


Officials said they did not know what type of ammunition was used in
the officers' handguns, which
they said are supposed to be loaded with rubber bullets during
simulation exercises.

The training at the school, which started May 28, was designed to
teach tactical team members how to
handle incidents like the school shooting at Columbine High School in
Littleton, Colo., said Ms. Chubé.

OFFICERS SHOT DURING TRAINING
At least five area police officers have been shot during training
exercises in recent years. Two of the
shootings were fatal.
2001 – Arlington police Cpl. Joseph "Joey" Cushman, 26, was killed
when he was shot in the head
during a tactical training exercise at Ousley Junior High School on
Thursday.

1997 – Denton officer Luz Torres Jr. was shot in the abdomen on his
second day on the job. Another
officer posing as a criminal shot him with a handgun that was
supposed to be unloaded.

1996 – A 37-year-old Richardson police officer accidentally shot
himself in the leg during a training
exercise at a Plano police academy.

1991 – Arlington tactical team instructor Officer James "Trey" Roach
III, 32, was shot in the neck after
standing behind a target not meant to be part of the drill.

1990 – 24-year-old Cedar Hill police officer Grady Lamb was
accidentally shot and killed by a fellow
officer as they re-enacted a training exercise.


Cpl. Cushman was the Arlington department's sixth officer to die in
the line of duty. He's one of at
least five Dallas-Fort Worth officers to be shot during training
exercises. In 1990, 24-year-old Cedar
Hill police officer Grady Lamb was accidentally shot in the chest and
killed by a fellow officer during a
re-enactment.
Few details were available late Thursday about the Arlington
incident.

The exercise started at 3 p.m., police said, and the 10 to 15
officers involved had returned from a
lunch break shortly before the shooting. Cpl. Cushman was taken to
John Peter Smith Hospital in Fort
Worth by helicopter and pronounced dead about 7:30 p.m.

Arlington school officials were distraught to hear of the accident.

"It's devastating to hear about a police officer being hit during the
whole thing. It's something nobody
wants to deal with or hear about," said Michael Glaspie, Arlington
school board president. Trustees
were told of the incident after a meeting Thursday night.

Mr. Glaspie said the training was part of the district's efforts to
handle potential problems at
campuses.

Jerry McCullough, AISD deputy superintendent who works with officers
on security issues, said: "It's
shocking. Our hearts go out to them because it's a tragedy in their
ranks. I just feel for them."

The district plans to continue classes Friday for the 200 students
attending school. Summer school
classes began Wednesday, and others are participating in an extended
year program for students who
failed a portion of the TAAS test.

The training was supposed to be conducted from 3 to 11 p.m. Classes
end at noon.

Some Arlington residents said they were concerned and surprised to
learn that police were training at
the school, which is in a residential neighborhood where many
children play.

Brad Cunningham, a UTA student, said he saw paramedics bring the
officer out of the building, still
pumping his chest. His mother, Linda, said she was concerned about
the training involving guns.

"For something so careful, why didn't they take extra precautions?"
she said.
__________________________

[dragonrain]

My thoughts and prayers to family and friends.

You guys be carefull out there.

Case
DR

[This message has been edited by dragonrain (edited 06-08-2001).]

[Erick]

We, collectively, as a profession need to do something about. I wish my count was off but this makes 7 or 8 officers that we've lost in the last 18-24 months in training accidents where either live or blank ammo made it into a supposedly "dry" training area.

Triple check weapons, buy a bunch of dummy guns - heck the local academy makes the recruits purchase & carry Red Guns -. Anubody have any ideas? The editorial in the NTOA was on this very subject.

Erick

[FutureRanger2000]

My condolences to the family of the officer involved in this tragedy.

[RogueExec]

I lament with the family.

RECON, did you know that guy?

[Swat1]

We had a very similar event here in Oregon and it has torn that department and it's SWAT team apart. They have suffered the worst kind of officer involved shooting. There is no bad guy to chase down. There is no justice to be had.

I implore you guys that are out there whether on a team or working the streets. When training PLEASE, QUADRUPLE check your firearms. DO NOT use sims or unloaded firearms and transition back and forth to live fire. Separate your training. Conduct sim or unloaded training in one segment, then take a break and conduct live fire training. DO NOT go back to sims training that day. Use a visual marking system to identify cleared firearms and keep checking them. We use a colored tape system. When training ALL persons present, whether participating or not are lined up with ALL firearms present and are cleared, no live ammo can be on the person in mags, mag holders, pockets etc.

When the person is checked clear a higly visible piece of colored tape is placed on the barrel or tac light of the firearm, sims have a blue aluminum block which is very visible. This has worked well for us and we have not had an incident. Err to the side of safety. If someone demonstrates they are not responsible enough to participate or conduct safe training BOOT THIER ASS OFF THE RANGE AND CONDUCT REMEDIAL TRAINING UNTIL THEY GET IT RIGHT. I know I am preaching to the choir.

Be safe.

Swat1*

[RECON5]

Originally posted by RogueExec:
I lament with the family.

RECON, did you know that guy?

No...When I first saw this post I thought I had missed something. This is from ARLINGTON P.D...near Dallas / Ft. Worth. I am down here in Austin about 300mi difference.

I had heard the same news though just before leaving town. They were practing Covert Entries with Simunition or sorts, and someone had chambered a live round in the process.

My condoleces to the family and fellow officers.



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REMEMBER 1*

[wolfhound227]

My prayers go out to the family AND to the other officer envolved.


I'm not a cop but my friends at the Carmel-By-The-Sea PD made changes after the training accident in San Jose that occurred in preparation for the World Cup. They use separate 9mm handguns for the Sim rounds.These guns have an insert barrel so that they can only fire the sim round. They also use a hard plastic gun(pretend) gun for dissarming technique practice.

[Sharky]

My condolences to his family. I hope they fired the idiot who shot him.

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F.I.D.O.

[RogueExec]

That's the usual practice. That's just not a mistake that one can make and still maintain the trust level of his/her peers.