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Incredibly Stupid!! LEO Firearms Instructor Accidently Kills Student

8K views 40 replies 32 participants last post by  madmike 
#1 ·
Georgia Instructor Radically Broke Gun Safety Rules
BRENDEN SAGER
The Atlanta Journal-Constitution



Recruits in a Cobb County police firearms class were worried about an instructor's teaching methods moments before he shot and killed a member of the class, an investigative report released Friday shows.

In fact, the report said that recruits in Cobb Sheriff's Deputy Al Jackson's class didn't want to follow his instructions to point weapons at their classmates, and that Jackson physically moved them and their guns to bear on one another.

Jackson shot and killed Tara Drummond, a 23-year-old Kennesaw Police Department recruit, on Sept. 13, at the North Central Georgia Law Enforcement Academy in Austell.

The report also says that in 2000, the director of the police academy forbade Jackson in writing from using live weapons in class, and a variety of weapons instructors said Jackson violated the most rudimentary tenet of firearms instruction: Don't point a working gun, loaded or not, at a person.

Cobb police officials on Friday released a summary of their investigation into the fatal shooting. The report became public after a Cobb County grand jury declined Thursday to indict Jackson, 49, on any crime.

The grand jury was asked to consider two misdemeanor charges against Jackson, reckless conduct and involuntary manslaughter, according to documents filed in court.

The police investigation, completed in November, did not recommend charges against Jackson, Cobb Public Safety Director Mickey Lloyd said. The report released Friday said there was no criminal intent by Jackson but was critical of his teaching methods.

"The class and the instructors were armed with functioning weapons, magazines and utility belts," the report said. "Sergeant Jackson instructed the students to point their weapons at each other.

"The students stated they were pointing their weapons at the wall to avoid direct aim at their classmates. ... Students were verbally and physically moved into this face-to-face position by Sergeant Jackson.

"The drill included dropping the magazine in the weapon, reloading with a spare magazine, charging the weapon with a dummy round, pointing the weapon at a fellow student, and pulling the trigger.

"Sergeant Jackson completed the first course of fire and transitioned to his second magazine. The weapon discharged and struck Recruit Tara Drummond in the chest."

Bob Sanderson, assistant director of the Georgia Public Safety Training Center in Forsyth County, said Friday the exercise was a significant departure from normal training procedures.

"Even with simulations, you don't line up students across from each other and practice loading and aiming and shooting at someone," Sanderson said. "There are drills you do, where you drop your magazine, aim and fire, but you do it on the firing range. I never heard of anyone conducting their drills that way. That is completely contrary to what I know of."

Sanderson said a fake gun --- a molded solid piece of plastic --- and dummy bullets would normally be used for such classroom exercises.

Dummy rounds are "blanks" designed to simulate the weight and feel of a live round, but without any projectile, Cobb Sheriff's Col. Don Bartlett said.

The synopsis of the police investigation was not clear on how a live round --- the fatal bullet --- came to enter Jackson's 9 mm semiautomatic handgun. Police recovered the shell casing and the projectile from the training classroom.

All ammunition is banned from the building, and state policy bans any working firearm --- loaded or not --- from police academy classrooms, officials said.

The state oversees the center in Austell and nine other regional police academies. The Austell academy is operated by Cobb County under a contract with the state.

"The lab also advised that the projectile was ammunition generally used at a live fire range," the report said.

Jackson, a 23-year veteran of the sheriff's office who had taught at the academy for 10 years, "stated that the dummy rounds were stored in a range box which he had left in the classroom. The dummy rounds had been used on a live fire range a few weeks prior to the incident. ... [Jackson] had not checked the dummy rounds after they came off the range or before he inserted them into his weapon."

Sanderson said any ammunition should be checked and rechecked as it passes from different locations.

"Certainly, safety would require that you re-inventory your dummy rounds and containers for your ammunition so you make sure you don't risk mixing live with dummy rounds," Sanderson said.

The report also concluded that "there appeared to be little review by North Central Georgia Law Enforcement Academy Staff on how Sergeant Jackson taught this class."

Carole Morgan, director of the training center, said Friday instructors were following standard procedures when the shooting occurred.

"Everything that we were doing was consistent with what we should have been doing," Morgan said. "There is no live ammunition in our classes."

Morgan said she had not seem the Cobb police report. She said the academy interviewed all of the staff, but it would not release details about the academy's response to Drummond's death until all the investigations are complete.

The Cobb Sheriff's Office still has an open administrative personnel investigation.

Cobb police released only the investigative synopsis Friday, a four-page document that's part of a larger 2,500-page report on the shooting.

Police declined to release the entire report because personnel details were being redacted.

The summary on Jackson concludes in fairly blunt terms:

"He deviated from the basic fundamentals of firearms safety which resulted in this tragedy."

Jackson's attorney, Lance LoRusso, could not be reached Friday.

* ON THE WEB: Read the police report online at ajc.com.


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#2 ·
I can not believe this story. You would think that Firearms instructors would number one, always check to see if there is a round in the gun, and more important than that, we all know, never point a gun at anything you are not willing to distroy. We have all been taught all of this since we were kids. And to top it all off the grand jury did not find anything wrong with what he did. I am confident that had this incident happened in Oklahoma, we would have charged him with Murder 2.
 
#6 ·
Ridiculous. I can't even pull the trigger on an empty handgun in my house, pointing it in a safe manner, after I've cleaned it, unless I've checked the chamber 47 times. I sure as heck wouldn't be pointing it at a person even then. Crimony.
 
#8 ·
Maybe more common than we think. I know a firearms instructor who does something very similar when teaching CCW classes. He insists that at least once - that each student, after showing clear, point the gun at him (he does not allow the gun to be pointed at anyone else) and drop the hammer on an empty chamber. His reasoning is to make sure that each person can pull the trigger on a real person - just once.

I don't necessarily agree with his methods - but to his defense he is very cautious and 'safe' and does not allow muzzles to cross any person other than himself.
 
#9 ·
rstickle said:
Was there a basic safety rule this guy DIDN'T break?

Sad!
That's exactly what I thought. Had he followed just ONE of the rules, that recruit would probably be alive.

He might not get charged criminally, but I bet a civil suit is on the way. I hope this arrogant jackass gets nailed for everything he has for the rest of his life.
 
#10 ·
I've serious doubts about that "instructor's" boss, as well. Looks to me like he had plenty of warning that he had an idiot working in a potentially dangerous job.

I'd probably serve them both the same fate.

mm
 
#11 ·
What a tragedy! I can't believe that he wasn't charged with at least negligent homicide or something similar. I've heard of training using an "unloaded" weapon being pointed at someone. Personally I find it very stupid. If you want to do training that requires you to point a gun at someone (take away training for example) get one of those red practice guns.

Like CK said, I check my Glock several times before pulling the trigger when unloading it. And even then I'm afraid I'll put a hole in the floor!

I must have missed it in the story, but is this idiot still employed?
 
#12 ·
Rule #2 - Rule #2 - Rule #2 - Rule #2 - Rule #2 - Rule #2 -

Holy crap what would anyone be thinking about trying his ''methods''. Accident (tragedy) waiting to happen. It takes the breath away.

In this instance of course it took a life away, totally needlessly. :frown:
 
#13 ·
acparmed said:
The report released Friday said there was no criminal intent by Jackson but was critical of his teaching methods.
Ooooh...that'll teach him..:mad:
Hopefully the young lady's family will haul this <multiple expletives deleted> into civil court and clean his clock. :rant:
 
#15 ·
Pretty ridiculous. Not only should this guy be fired and go to jail (hopefully at least he'll get some civil action), but everyone that should have been checking on his training methods should be canned as well.
 
#16 ·
I do not understand why this negligence did not result in indictment for involuntary manslaughter or reckless endangerment, considering the loss of life. If I hit someone with my car due to negligence and a life was lost, you can bet I'd be charged, even though I had no criminal intent. If I shot and killed someone due to negligence, you can bet I'd be charged, even though I had no criminal intent. Was this not negligence on the part of the instructor?
 
#18 ·
It always amazes me how groups respond to authority...in this situation it seems evident that the class was uncomfortable with the drill...yet they did it anyways when "forced". This does not take back the stupid and careless acts of the instructor (who by the way should be thrown in prison)....just another angle worth looking at and asking, "What would I have done if I were a student in that class?"
 
#19 ·
Jackson, a 23-year veteran of the sheriff's office who had taught at the academy for 10 years
When the inevitable Wrongful Death civil suit is filed, guess which sheriff's office will be a named defendant.

Can't add much to what others have said in posts above. Shocking that a 23 year veteran like Jackson would ever violate all the cardinal rules of gun safety.
 
#20 ·
At the school in GB where I attended, we had the Glock Red and Blue guns and to the best of my knowledge, you can't put a real slide on a blue or red frame gun.

For exit quals, there was a real Glock. It was the only one on the range. Ammo was stored 60 feet away and there was a range officer on each side of the cadet doing the qual. There was a third who loaded mags. Those were the only people on the hot line. The cadet qualifying and three range officers (instructors). Everyone had body armor and kevlar helmets on. EVERYONE. Even the non shooters. Never an accident in all the years the academy has been run there. Not even a close call.

Trajedy indeed.
 
#22 ·
There is only ONE reason this instructor wasn't charged, especially if he had a past history of violating safety rules... he's a LEO and the police look after their own. If you can give me a more reasonable, valid explanation for giving this guy a pass on a situation that would have landed ANYONE else in jail, I'd like to hear it.

The police department may not be covering for him as much as themselves, however. If they arrest this guy and bring him up on charges, they open themseves up a big can of worms. He should have been removed as an instructor long ago if the reports in the original post are true. The fact that he wasn't and was still an instructor with all the past safety and policy violations in his record, will open up the school to a crap load of lawsuits for not only the school, but all his supervisors and other superiors who allowed this walking time bomb to work there. :ahhhhh:

Again, if the man were a "civilian" or this had happened at someplace other than a police training facility, he'd have been in the slammer before the sun set that day. I'm sure there are going to be more than a few people here who won't like this statement, but it's just another example of the double standard that we common folk have come to expect from the boys in blue. I guess it's the price we pay for them putting themselves between us and harms way. :rant:
 
#23 ·
I would think that firearms instructor and LEO would be held to a much higher standard than an ordinary citizen, yet this one is not even held to the standard used for citizens. Not only that, he has a record of not following safety standards and has letter in his record ordering him not to do the very thing he did. While I understand the comment about LEOs protecting their own. The grand jury in Cobb County did not return a charge against this officer. Of course the grand jury was only requested to consider the possibility of indicting him on 2 misdemeanor charges. Having been on a grand jury several times I know that the grand jury has lots of power and if 12 of the 18 people on that jury had wanted to they could have indicted him on greater charges. I find it almost impossible to believe that they did not indict on some charge. What were they thinking?
 
#25 ·
Having been on a grand jury several times I know that the grand jury has lots of power and if 12 of the 18 people on that jury had wanted to they could have indicted him on greater charges. I find it almost impossible to believe that they did not indict on some charge. What were they thinking?
The grand jury obviously has access to the facts of the case that the news media does not. Im sure that it was discussed over and over until they came up with a sastifactory conclusion.

It was an accident. Apparently the Grand Jury thought it to be so. If the guy was guilty of anything he was at least guilty of being an idiot ...but guess what...there is no law against being an idiot. If there was, we would be minus a bunch of politicians.
 
#26 ·
"It was an accident. Apparently the Grand Jury thought it to be so. If the guy was guilty of anything he was at least guilty of being an idiot ...but guess what...there is no law against being an idiot."

If I ever point a rifle out my front door, pull the trigger (thinking it's unloaded, of course) and kill someone in another house "by accident", I hope the grand jury here will be as understanding.
 
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