Third Gun Incident Involving FIU Officers Uncovered
APD officer suspended for accidentally shooting patrol car
Trooper shot in the foot by another trooper
State trooper charged in shooting of fellow officer
Third
Gun Incident Involving FIU Officers Uncovered
MIAMI (CBSMiami) – A bullet accidentally fired from a police
sergeant’s gun at his work desk was shot through the wall of his office, into
the kitchen, through the refrigerator, into the Communications area, through
another wall, ricocheting off a flat screen TV, and finally coming to a stop in
a hallway garbage can.
FIU Police Sgt. Alberto Alfonso
was transferring several of his personal guns from holsters to hard cases at
his desk when his gun went off last August.
FIU Police policy requires
clearing guns, using a specified “clearing barrel” that is located in the
police station on FIU’s main campus.
After Sgt. Alfonso fired that
shot inside the police station according to the incident report, his assistant
chief responded and picked up the gun, asking him whether it was clear and
safe, Sgt. Alfonso said yes, but when the Assistant Chief checked, he found
another live round in the chamber.
“Anytime I’ve handled a gun, you know there’s
a round in the chamber. That’s gun etiquette 101,” FIU student Stephanie Castro
told CBS4’s Natalia Zea.
The students we spoke with were
surprised by the shooting.
“That’s ridiculous. You’ve got
to like really know what you’re doing,” said Angel Naves.
Sgt. Alfonso was given a
written reprimand which reads in part, “Your failure to use due care is
compounded by the fact that you are a FIUPD firearms instructor and a FIUPD
field training supervisor.”
Sgt. Alfonso would not do an
interview, but told Zea by phone simply, “”I made a mistake, I paid the price
for it.”
This is the third incident CBS4
News has uncovered involving FIU officers improperly using their guns.
In late October, during
shooting practice at the Miami Dade Public Safety Training Institute Officer
Joe Mesa fired shots into the air while on the line and surrounded by other
officers…he was fired for it.
Half an hour after Mesa’s
outburst, Officer Sonia Meneses accidentally shot her gun into Officer Mesa’s
backpack.
Meneses was suspended without
pay for one day.
Students we spoke with say
these three incidents show more training is necessary.
“ I think they should be having
firearms training so they know how to work a gun,” said Naves.
But according to an FIU
source…firearms training has been suspended for the last four months following
the gun range shootings…and no gun trainings are scheduled at this point.
APD
officer suspended for accidentally shooting patrol car
AUSTIN -- An Austin police
officer will be suspended temporarily for
accidentally shooting his own patrol car on Saturday, Jan. 17.
Officer Arturo Canizales will
be suspended from duty for one day on Tuesday, Feb. 17, 2015.
"On January 17, 2015,
Officer Canizales, while conducting his required 10-41 check, had an
unintentional discharge with his assigned patrol unit shotgun into the
passenger side of the marked unit. There were no injuries," Austin Police
Chief Art Acevedo said in a memorandum.
It happened while Canizales
checked his shot gun.
Acevedo said the intent of this
policy is to promote proper firearm safety on and off duty.
Trooper
shot in the foot by another trooper
Becca Mitchell,
Isle of Wight County, Va. – A Virginia State Police trooper was shot in
the foot by another trooper during a joint police operation with the Isle
of Wight County Sheriff’s Department on Thursday.
Isle of Wight Officials say
this occurred in the 8700 block of Smithfield Apartments Lane. They say crews
were executing a search warrant which was part of an ongoing narcotics
investigation.
According to a release from
Virginia State Police, a dog attacked one of the team members when they were
making entry into the home. The trooper attempted to shoot the attacking dog
and one of the rounds hit another trooper in the foot. The dog was killed.
The trooper’s injury was
non-life threatening. They were taken to the hospital, treated and released.
Three people were arrested and
charged including Gershon Green, Derrick L. Delk and Direka S. Towns. All are
facing felony charges.
Green has been charged with
possession with the intent to distribute heroin, possession with the intent to
distribute imitation cocaine, possess ammunition by a convicted felon, possession of marijuana.
Delk has been charged with
possession of a schedule 3 narcotic and possession with the intent to
distribute marijuana and Towns has been charged with possession with the intent
to distribute marijuana, possession with the intent to distribute of schedule 1
or 2 narcotic, possession of a schedule 3 narcotic, and possession of a firearm
by a convicted felon.
There are also warrants on file
for Patrick Simmons.
The investigation remains
ongoing.
State
trooper charged in shooting of fellow officer
JESSICA PARKS AND BEN FINLEY
More than four months after
rookie State Trooper David Kedra was killed in a Montgomery County training
exercise, authorities on Tuesday identified and charged his shooter - an
experienced instructor - with reckless endangerment.
Cpl. Richard Schroeter, a
20-year veteran of the state police and a firearms instructor for over a
decade, could face up to 10 years in prison.
The grand jury report that
recommended the charges also delivered answers to many of the questions that
have surrounded Kedra's death.
Schroeter, it said, had been
conducting training sessions as the department switched from a Glock to a Sig
Sauer handgun.
On Sept. 30, Kedra was one of
five troopers sitting around a table at the Public Safety Training Campus in
Plymouth Township.
"Schroeter
was discussing the trigger mechanics when he pulled the trigger on his
duty-issued firearm," the District Attorney's Office and the state police
said in a joint statement.
The
weapon fired, and a bullet struck Kedra in the abdomen. He died about an hour
later at a trauma center in Philadelphia.
Kedra, 26, was a graduate of
Temple University and Roman Catholic High School. He had joined the state
police, his dream job, straight out of college.
The grand jury recommendation
was not unanimous. Prosecutors had given the panel the option of a manslaughter
charge and possibly a more severe sentence. But 10 of the 18 jurors rejected
that, and 13 voted for reckless endangerment, a misdemeanor.
Kevin Kedra, the trooper's
older brother, said Tuesday that the family was not satisfied with the charges.
In a statement Tuesday night,
Christine Kedra, the trooper's sister, called the charges "a slap on the
wrist for this man, and a slap in the face for David, our family, and for
justice."
"With her decision to only
charge for reckless endangerment, [District Attorney] Risa Vetri Ferman is
telling us that the fact that my brother was killed doesn't matter, that the
life of a 26-year-old Pennsylvania state trooper doesn't matter,"
Christine Kedra said. "That is disgusting, and we refuse to accept that.
We want justice for David Kedra, and we want Richard Schroeter to face the full
consequences of his action, not a reduced charge. . . . David Kedra was a great
man. He was a son, a brother, an uncle, a fiance, and a Pennsylvania state
trooper. He deserves justice from the very system that he died for, and we will
not rest until we have it."
Ferman said earlier in the day
that the filing of the lesser charges "does not in any way negate the
seriousness of what he is being charged with."
If convicted of all five counts
- one for each of the troopers he allegedly endangered - Schroeter could face a
maximum of five to 10 years in prison. A single involuntary manslaughter
conviction carries a sentence of 21/2 to 5 years, Ferman said.
"There's nothing we can do
to bring David Kedra back. There's nothing we can do to make that family
whole," Ferman said. "It was horribly negligent, and there must be
criminal responsibility."
Schroeter's defense lawyer,
Timothy Woodward, a former Montgomery County prosecutor, said the 42-year-old
corporal is "wracked with remorse" and has been in counseling since
the shooting.
In a booking photo taken
Tuesday morning and released along with the charges, Schroeter appeared
teary-eyed.
"It's not about him. It's
about the fact that an innocent life was lost. Someone whom he cared about.
This is bringing up some very, very terrible memories," said Woodward,
adding that the two men worked out of the same barracks in Skippack.
Kedra's death capped one of the
darkest periods in state police history. Three weeks earlier, a gunman killed
one trooper and seriously injured another in Pike County; at the time, hundreds
of officers were still combing the Poconos in search of the prime suspect, Eric
Frein.
And four days earlier, the
state police commissioner at the time had been named by the attorney general as
one of eight public officials who had sent or received pornographic materials
over their state-issued e-mail accounts.
The case against Schroeter was
heard by a grand jury in Norristown. The panel found that "he breached
routine, yet critical, safety protocol by failing to visually and physically
check to ensure his weapon was unloaded, failing to obtain confirmation from
another that his firearm was not loaded, and failing to point his weapon away
from the direction of everyone present," Ferman said in a statement.
Schroeter lived in Royersford
and grew up in Kintnersville in upper Bucks County, according to public
records. In 1990, he graduated from Palisades High School, where he was a
National Honor Society member and played varsity basketball and baseball,
according to news accounts.
In addition to his 20 years
with the state police, Woodward said, Schroeter is a volunteer firefighter and
was out on a fire call Monday night when he got the news that he would have to
turn himself in.
Schroeter was suspended without
pay Tuesday, a state police spokesman said.
Acting Commissioner Marcus L.
Brown said he believed the charges were appropriate and Schroeter "should
be held accountable for his actions."
"Clearly, standard
protocols were not followed by the corporal, and we need to make sure that this
type of accident will never happen again," Brown said in a statement.
Schroeter waived his
preliminary hearing and was released on $50,000 bail.
