GARDINER, Maine — Kennebec County Sheriff Randall Liberty said he is bruised but OK after being shot accidentally by a deputy during a training session at a gun range Thursday.
While at a required firearms qualifying session at a gun range in Gardiner on Thursday, Liberty was shot in the back while a deputy was reloading his pistol. Liberty was wearing his ballistic vest.
“It felt like a hammer hit me right in the back,” Liberty said in a telephone interview Friday. “It was a significant blow.”
Liberty was kneeling with 10 people in a line to his left when he was hit with a .45-caliber round. He immediately told everyone to cease fire.
“It hit just to the right of the center of my spine,” said Liberty, adding that he has a 2-inch-wide bruise in the same spot. “The vest did a good job. It dispersed the blow.”
Liberty said a deputy, whom he declined to name, was reloading his weapon behind a shed about 30 feet behind those shooting on the range. The gun discharged and went through both walls of the shed before hitting Liberty in the back.
Liberty said he has been checked out by a doctor, but is suffering from only bruising and swelling.
“I’m all right,” he said.
An internal investigation is under way. The results are expected by Wednesday, the sheriff said.
Each officer is required to hit 40 out of 50 targets from varying distances and positions in two consecutive sessions as part of Maine Criminal Justice Academy certification, Liberty said. Once the first group is completed, they are supposed to reload their magazines, but keep the gun in the holster and not insert a round into the chamber until the person is ready to shoot on the range.
The way the deputy was reloading his weapon was against department policy, he said.
Liberty said he has worn a ballistic vest for his entire law enforcement career.
“I wear mine every day and have for 30 years,” said Liberty.
Despite having served 24 years in the military and spending time in Fallujah, Iraq, it’s the first time he’s been shot.
“They were never successful [in shooting me in Iraq],” Liberty said.
The incident should serve as a reminder to law enforcement and the public that it is important always to treat a firearm with respect, he said.
“The lesson is no weapon is ever safe. Always point in a safe direction. Complacency kills,” he said. “It’s a lesson for everyone in law enforcement and as we enter hunting season.”
The incident will be reported to the Maine Criminal Justice Academy, which will likely use it as a lesson to students, he said.
Liberty added that it’s the policy of the Kennebec County Sheriff’s Department to require officers to wear ballistic vests on gun ranges, but it’s not a policy for every department.
“In 2012, are you kidding me?” Liberty said, referring to other law enforcement agencies across the country that don’t have such a requirement.
I’m sure the deputy feels terrible, hope the invesigation finds it was an accident, and gives him the approraite punishment.
He violated policy, he was loading in an area he was not suppose to and he pulled the trigger, not an accident but Negligence. Many claim the gun “just fired” but they always have their finger on the trigger when they do
lucky for the sherriff there was two walls to slow that bullet down a bit. Not to sure I’d want to be that deputy facing an AD investigation…
enis
You got enis envy ?
Reminds me of a tragic accident in VT about 30 years ago, when a state police sargeant was cleaning his gun at his desk, and it discharged. Sadly, he wasn’t so lucky, and died of his injury.
http://www.odmp.org/officer/14590-sergeant-arthur-l-yeaw
So, did that count as one of the 40 hits for the deputy?
I am truly baffled, as a responsible firearms owner and user there is no reason this should have ever happened, let alone on a shooting range and most especially by a person who is supposed to have above average command and control with a firearm. Since I was a child I can say I have never pointed a firearm in the direction where anyone was standing and I always treat it like it is loaded. I find it appalling when I am in a gun store and I see someone pointing a gun in the direction of people, even though they are required to be unloaded, you never know. This deputy should be suspended until he can demonstrate superior firearms knowledge and capabilities. This is absolutely ridiculous.
“The incident should serve as a reminder to law enforcement and the public that it is important always to treat a firearm with respect, he (Liberty) said.”
Absolutely.
Damn lucky that he wasn’t lower than kneeling.
No mention of the gun beyond .45 caliber. Wonder what it was & how can a trained LEO fire off a shot while reloading?
Possibly he was chambering the first round and pulled the trigger, or he miscounted his previous rounds shot, ignored the slide being closed, and didn’t check the weapon clear. It could be he was freeing a jam. Still I can’t imagine why he did not have the piece pointed down range no matter. We used too have a range supervisor’s watchful eyes and reminding strong words.
i want to know when the deputy is on duty, so i can stay away from the streets.
Hopefully the answer to when he is on duty again is- never.
I concur
ANYBODY that accidently shoots someone gets their name put out in the press. WHAT makes these cops above the law that applys to the REST of us. This is nothing short of corruption and /or favortism.
Not suspended. Fired. And prosecuted to the fullest extent of the law.
I saw this on the Andy Griffith Show one time. Barney had to give his bullet back to Andy.
Whenever you saw Barney getting that bullet out of his shirt pocket you knew something was going to happen.
Barney Fife’s grandson.
take barneys gun from him.
I am surprised they still use .45’s. The deputy related to Chaney??
Confused as to why you are surprised. Me St Police(last I checked) as well as many other agencies use .45s.
Wow, the old 45 acp was what we used in the Navy back in the 60’s, I guess I did not know it was still popular, figured they use some newer .40 cal or something, well, I learned something. I always thought the old .357 magnum was about as good cartridge that they ever developed.
they should get the deputy a DAISY repeater, my little son has one. they work good.
Super Troopers is all I could think of when I read the headline.
The crime is called Reckless Conduct with a Firearm and is a Class C felony in Maine. The deputy should be fired, prosecuted, and never again allowed to have a firearm. Absolutely no excuse for this behavior.
No disrespect to you GMMLarry, but you know the chance of them doing that is right?
So if you recklessly fire a firearm and don’t hurt anyone you get charged with a felony. But if you are a cop and recklessly fire a firearm and shoot someone it is ok.
“I shot the sheriff.
“But I did not shoot the deputy down.”
Dammit, people, keep the muzzle up and down-range. Yeah, the moderator is gonna cut this for cussing. Sometimes, cussing is needful. Of all people, a sworn law enforcement officer should know weapon safety.
you should keep the muzzle pointed down. you know what it’ll hit if it goes off.
if the muzzle is up in the air…. what goes up must come down.
Army doctrine was “muzzle up and down-range” when I was in. A low round was likely to ricochet and hit your buddy. Or the range sergeant, who was more important . . .
A round in the sky has a low chance of doing damage.
Wow, just wow. Remember what many anti-gunners think though. Only police and military should have guns. That never should have happened.
Ooh. That’s going on that guy’s Permanent Record for sure.
The deputy is not put on paid leave pending an outcome of an investigation from the AG to see if the shooting was justified?
I was alarmed by the headline and relieved to realize Sheriff Liberty is all right. I have met him and he is a good man. He truly wants to make a difference. It would be a shame to lose him to someone’s carelessness.
They all want to make a difference. That’s not the point. No-one becomes a cop to be complacent. But, a difference for whom, I wonder? Who’s interests are they truly protecting, and serving, most often?
THESE ARE PROFESSIONALS??
Well, for certain values of “professionals”, yeah. I mean, it’s the Kennebec County Sheriff’s Department, not Her Majesty’s Special Air Service.
Yes, they’re professionals in the midst of a refresher course. The folks who hope to put a loaded gun in the hands of every man, woman, and child in the country are working hard at this very moment to figure out how to duck the safety issue… again.
I guess the training is needed.
well the mouth returns. yap i know it was too good to be true.
Some of the worst people I have seen with firearms are cops…
they’re ALL pretty good at swinging their pretty battons around, however
Not sure who was running that range but I can tell you that’s not the way we did it in the Military. You don’t have people loading weapons unless they are on the firing line with weapons up and down range. No excuse for this..
thats the way at all gun clubs.you dont load until on the line.and no loaded guns allowed in the clubhouse ever. this guy is trouble take his gun and permit,give him a desk job.
And THAT’S why Andy made Barney keep his bullet in his pocket…
cop shoot cop
So let me get this right, two guys get arrested for a felony for recklessly shooting a firearm that did not hit anyone but a LIO does it and is not arrested. Doesnt sount right to me, this guy should be arrested like any other citizen.
http://bangor-launch.newspackstaging.com/2012/10/19/news/penobscot/2-men-summoned-after-bullet-enters-home-in-dexter-lands-3-feet-away-from-woman-police-say/?ref=polbeat
A: Lucky that .45 went through a building first and B: Lucky it was not pointed at his head. This guy should buy a lottery ticket it was his lucky day.
Gee, do the word’s ‘Range Safety’ ring a familiar bell ?
Very bad career move. Time for a state standown if this is the calibre of officers on the street….
wow he should be assigned to a desk job for life
I’m sure it will be ruled a justifiable shooting like all the rest of the cop shootings in Maine…
Fail !!!
A video of the incident has just been released!!!
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LaaBz9fUUU4
I can’t understand this happening being someone who has owned guns all his life! I learned, Safety first and would not want this guy on our police force!
Good thing guns don’t kill people.
Too bad it hadn’t been Travis Willey.
And these are the people tasked to “protect and serve”? Boy, do I feel better now. No wonder all the people with ego problems in school grow up to be cops. Not only do you get do to what you want to whoever you want whenever you want, you also get to shoot people in the back and they’ll just makes jokes about it.
If I got shot in the back by some cop who cant keep his finger off the trigger, I doubt the words out of my mouth would be “cease fire”. I mean, it seems redundant, first of all and secondly, if i’ve just been shot an have no idea if I am bleeding out, I don’t want my last to words to be cease fire.
th
th
thank God sheriff’s ok.
as far as deputy’s accidental discharge – it absolutely shouldn’t have happened, but we all make the stupidest and the most pathetic mistakes. bet this deputy will be tripple careful with firearms for the rest of his life – and hopefully it’s not rear echelon paperpushers that get to decide his fate.
the range rules shouldn’t allow reloading outside of the firing line either!
the deputy does owe the ballistic vest maker a huge case of napoleon cognac though.
No excuse. If this was not one of the “privileged few” in law enforcement, the negligent officer would have been arrested and charged with Reckless Conduct with a Firearm, a Class C felony. Of course, the law does not apply to those wearing a badge. I am not sure too many people would take this as calmly as Sheriff Randy Liberty. I am certainly happy this did not end in tragedy because Randy is a great sheriff and a fine man.