Fairfax County Police Watch: At some point, America, we’ll need to require minimum IQ standards for cops and here’s why;

Police Officer Charged With DWI After Shooting Friend In Leg

Cop accidentally shoots himself in leg on South Side

Delaware officer accidentally shoots self

Glasgow officer sues gun store after accidentally shooting off finger

Nassau police recruit accidentally shoots himself in leg during training, officials say

Off-duty officer accidentally shoots roommate

Police Officer Charged With DWI After Shooting Friend In Leg

Jesse Urban reported that his gun accidentally discharged, Ocean County Prosecutor's Office says.

By Patricia A. Miller (Patch Staff)January 16, 2015 at 7:27pm

A police officer was charged with driving under the influence after he shot and wounded a friend in the leg early Friday in Lacey Township, Ocean County Prosecutor Joseph D. Coronato said.

The incident happened shortly before 6 a.m. on Friday, when Pine Beach Police Officer Jesse Urban made a 911 call to report the his 23-year-old friend had been accidentally shot in the leg, Coronato said.

Lacey Township police responded to the parking lot of the 7-11 on Main Street and found the victim - who is from Forked River - with a gunshot wound to the leg. The victim was taken to Jersey Shore University Medical Center in Neptune, Coronato said.

Pine Beach Police Chief Reese Fisher has suspended the officer without pay after he called 911 to report his gun accidentally discharged.

The exact circumstances surrounding the shooting are under investigation. Urban, 23, was charged with driving under the influence, the prosecutor said.

“Evidence of alcohol involvement and the alleged operation of a motor vehicle have brought a charge of driving under the influence against Urban,” Coronato said.

The victim suffered non-life threatening injuries and is reportedly undergoing surgery at Jersey Shore, he said.

Fisher suspended Urban without pay pending the results of the investigation. The investigation is being conducted by the Ocean County Prosecutors Office, in conjunction with the Pine Beach and Lacey Township police departments.

Cop accidentally shoots himself in leg on South Side

By Deanese Williams-Harris

A Chicago police officer accidentally shot himself in the leg Friday evening during an investigation in the city's Englewood neighborhood, police said.Preliminary information indicated that at about 6:30 p.m., the officer was conducting a field investigation on the 5700 block of South Peoria Street when he accidentally discharged his weapon, said Police News Affairs Officer Thomas Sweeney. The officer, who suffered a leg wound, was taken to Advocate Christ Medical Center in Oak Lawn where he was listed in good condition, said Sweeney. No other details were available.

Delaware officer accidentally shoots self

NEW CASTLE, Del. (WPVI) --

A New Castle County police officer is recovering after he accidentally shot himself on the job Wednesday morning.

It happened during a raid on a house in the unit block of Freedom Court just after 11:30.

Police say the officer wasn't seriously hurt.

They have yet to provide any information on why they were raiding the house in the first place.

We do know, however, that several people were taken into custody.

Glasgow officer sues gun store after accidentally shooting off finger

By: WKYT NEWS STAFF

GLASGOW, Ky. (WBKO) - A former Glasgow police officer who accidentally shot off his finger has filed a lawsuit against the gun store, saying an employee handed him the gun without checking to see if it was loaded.

According to a report from WBKO, an affiliate of WKYT, a civil lawsuit was filed Friday by former Glasgow police officer Darrell Smith.

In March, Smith went into Barren Outdoors and asked to see a .380 caliber handgun, which was under the counter. Smith, who was examining the gun, cocked it and apparently did not know the gun was loaded. The gun fired, shooting off part of his index finger, the WBKO report says.

The lawsuit says the Barren Outdoors employee did not do a safety check on the gun before handing it to Smith.

Smith's attorney, Alan Simpson, said Smith lost his job with the police department after the incident; the lawsuit was filed to make up for his lost income.

"He's permanently disfigured,” Simpson told WBKO. “He went through a lot of pain and suffering. He's gone through several surgeries. He's got a lot of medical bills that have to be paid. It ended his career and he's going to have a lot of lost income."

Officials with Barren Outdoors declined WBKO’s requests for comment.

Nassau police recruit accidentally shoots himself in leg during training, officials say

A Nassau County Police Department recruit accidentally shot himself, "piercing" his thigh and calf during a training session at the county-owned shooting range in Uniondale, police said. A Nassau County Police Department recruit accidentally shot himself Wednesday, "piercing" his thigh and calf during a training session at the county-owned shooting range in Uniondale, police said. The police recruit, whose name and age were withheld by the department, was attending firearms training at the Nassau County Rifle & Pistol Range

Off-duty officer accidentally shoots roommate

BRANDON, Miss. —A Madison police officer is on leave while an investigation into a shooting is underway.

Police said Officer Zachery Creel, who was off-duty at the time, accidentally shot his roommate Hunter Flynt last week at a home off McLaurin Road in Brandon.

Investigators said Creel told them he was showing Flynt his new gun when it went off.

Madison police officials said Creel is on paid administrative leave.

Flynt was last listed in fair condition at the University of Mississippi Medical Center.

Man accidentally shot by Toledo police officer

Rookie on restricted duty after incident in Sylvania Thursday

BLADE STAFF

A rookie Toledo police officer is on restricted duty after accidentally shooting a friend.

The officer, Michael Ellerbrock, 25, is now working in records, said Toledo police Chief George Kral. He did not comment further, citing the department's contract and a pending Internal Affairs investigation.

Wounded in the shooting was Steven Kurtz, 23, of Pemberville. He was shot when the officer was cleaning a 9 mm Sig Sauer pistol when the gun fired at about 11:20 p.m. Thursday in the 5300 block of Silvertown Drive in Sylvania, according to Sylvania police. The officer and Mr. Kurtz are friends, police said.

Mr. Kurtz was shot in his “upper chest area,” said Sylvania police Chief William Rhodus. The victim was taken to ProMedica Toledo Hospital for treatment; on Monday, Mr. Krutz was listed in fair condition, a hospital spokesman said.

Sylvania police did not file charges and consider the case closed because investigators ruled the shooting was accidental, Chief Rhodus said.

Sylvania officers who responded to the scene were notified that Officer Ellerbrock was employed by the Toledo Police Department. Officer Ellerbrock graduated from the police academy in April.

Morrogh finds cop he doesn’t love. In other news, hell freezes.

Probe of fatal police shooting goes to federal authorities

By Justin Jouvenal/Post

The Fairfax County prosecutor has turned over the investigation of a fatal police shooting of an unarmed Springfield man to federal authorities, citing complications with the five-month-old case.

Commonwealth’s Attorney Ray Morrogh said the U.S. attorney’s office for the Eastern District of Virginia has agreed to continue the probe into the death of 46-year-old John Geer, who was shot during a standoff with Fairfax County police in August. No one has been charged in the incident.

“There is a conflict of interest that has arisen in the case,” Morrogh said Thursday. “And there is a second potential conflict of interest that has arisen out of my office. . . . This is the prudent thing to do.”

Morrogh declined to describe the nature of the conflicts because the investigation is ongoing. The U.S. attorney’s office said Thursday that it could not confirm or deny any investigation or comment on pending investigations.

Police went to Geer’s Pebble Brook Court home on Aug. 29 because of a report of a domestic disturbance. Geer’s father, Don Geer, said his son was upset because his girlfriend, the mother of his two children, had decided to leave him.

John Geer had thrown his girlfriend’s belongings in the front yard. She called police and told them that Geer had a firearm. Police said they tried for about 50 minutes to persuade Geer to leave the home, but he refused.

Don Geer said he watched the climax of the encounter. He said that he could not hear what officers were saying to his son but that he saw him standing with empty hands resting on top of a screen door at the home’s entrance.

At some point, John Geer began to slowly lower his hands and an officer opened fire, hitting Geer in the chest, his father said. Geer retreated inside and closed the door. A SWAT team eventually entered the home and found Geer dead.

Don Geer said detectives later told him that his son did not have a gun on him at the time of the shooting but that there was a holstered handgun a couple of steps from the front door.

Don Geer said it appeared to him that the shooting was unjustified, but he was unsure what to make of the probe being turned over to federal authorities.

“I don’t know whether that’s good or bad — if I had a better idea of why they are doing it, I could form an opinion,” he said.

Geer and friends of his son have been critical of how long the investigation has taken, but Morrogh said police and prosecutors were working to explore all the evidence. He did not think federal prosecutors would have to start from scratch.

“No one wants these things to linger on,” Morrogh said.

Our ink will outlast his career

Under the reign of former Chief of Police Rhorer the Fairfax County Police arrested a man for not wearing clothes in his house while he made coffee, set up an eye doctor on a gambling charge and then used the SWAT team to kill him. An investigation into the charge that the Doctor’s primary clients were cops has never been investigated. The police gunned down an emotionally unstable man because cop who shot him wrongly assumed the man was trying to escape. He wasn’t. The cops also shot dead four other citizens under highly questionable circumstances. The department under Rhorer was sued multiple times by citizens. So did they fire Rhorer? Naw they promoted him. According to news reports Rhorer draws a salary of $191,168 per year as Deputy Fairfax County Executive as well as a concurrent pension from the Fairfax County police of $173000 per year.

Occupation by force

According to the most recent U.S. Census figures, nearly one in five Fairfax residents (17.5 percent) is of Asian descent while Hispanics make up nearly 16 percent of Fairfax’s overall population. Those numbers drop considerably when applied to the Fairfax County Police Department, where only 4.3 percent of officers are Asian and 4.1 percent Hispanic. White officers make up 84 percent of Fairfax County’s 1,360-member police department, significantly higher than the county’s general population (54 percent white). Almost 90% of the force lives outside the county.