Cop 'confuses' his service pistol with Taser - shoots crazy man

[dmp]

WOW. There is NO excuse for 'confusing the two'...geesh..

Confusion Over Handgun Leads To Officer-Involved Shooting

BREMERTON - Confusion between a handgun and a Taser led to a man being shot in the leg by a sheriff's deputy near Bremerton Thursday afternoon.

Kitsap County deputies responded to call of a man who was acting strangely in a tree and had spent several hours there in the 200 block of National Avenue South just west of Bremerton at about 11:30 a.m.

When deputies arrived, they thought the man might have been drunk or mentally ill, so they were trying to get the man out of the tree for his own safety, said sheriff spokesman Scott Wilson.

Just before 1:30, they decided to use a Taser gun to shock the man into submission, but the Taser did not fire.

A second deputy drew what he thought was his Taser and fired at the man in the tree. But it turns out, the deputy had drawn his handgun and shot the man in the leg.

The 25-year-old man was airlifted to Harborview Medical Center in Seattle, where he was expected to make a full recovery.

The deputy who fired the shot was a 5-year veteran of the force and was placed on administrative leave, which is standard procedure any time an officer fires a weapon in the line of duty.

 

[misterblu]

WOW. There is NO excuse for 'confusing the two'...geesh..

Four fitle for fhis fhread fis funny.

More sleep == less typos.

 

[CSM]

WOW. There is NO excuse for 'confusing the two'...geesh..

Meh...the guy is out of the tree...what's the problem?

 

[5stringJeff]

On the radio, I heard that the taser they carry feels similar to the service pistol, and is carried right below the pistol. So, an officer relying on reflexes/muscle memory could accidentally draw the pistol and not realize it.

 

[dmp]

On the radio, I heard that the taser they carry feels similar to the service pistol, and is carried right below the pistol. So, an officer relying on reflexes/muscle memory could accidentally draw the pistol and not realize it.

He wasn't in a hurry, right? If it were life or death I could understand it MAYBE...