On March 24, 2022, a Toronto Police Service (TPS) member’s negligent discharge of a firearm sent him to hospital with serious injuries.
On March 31, 2022, a Peel Regional Police Service (PRPS) member’s negligent discharge sent that individual to hospital as well.
Two negligent discharges by police officers in eight days are either freak, unrelated cases or they hint at a broader problem – a lack of basic firearm safety training for Toronto-area police officers.
Thankfully neither officer was killed by their own mistake, but that’s the only good news.
In the first case, the TPS officer was in the Fairview Mall area in North York when his negligent discharge sent one or more bullets through his hand and leg. No details of the event were released an a Professional Standards investigation into the incident is underway.
The second case took place at a Mississauga training facility at approximately 1 p.m. That individual’s negligent discharge sent them to hospital with a non-life-threatening injury, said Const. Sarah Patten, PRPS Media Relations. She release no further details except to say a review is underway as is standard procedure whenever a firearm is discharged – intentionally or negligently.
If we learn any more about these incidents at all, it won’t be until after these two investigations are complete.
Familiarity can breed contempt, as the old saying goes, and my hope is that is not the case here. At a minimum, these two officers handled their firearms improperly – negligently.
These two negligent discharges offer police services across Canada a brilliant opportunity to refresh proper gun handling skills amongst all their members to reinforce proper firearm handling and safety techniques.
First, the incident at the training facility is somewhat understandable. They are training and I would think that handling their firearms is an expected part of the training. My question in this incident is why are the firearms loaded? If they were on a range, ok, something went wrong.
The incident in the mall is a whole different story. I find it suspicious the gun would discharge in the holster for what ever reason. If the officer was handling the firearm, what was the purpose for drawing his weapon? I know the police carry hot, but it still takes a squeeze of the trigger to make it discharge. Can’t wait to hear the reason.
Lynn
I’ve been shooting for many years and I have never even come close to shooting myself or others. I have even done some crazy practical shooting in the US, including run and gun and using a vehicle as concealment and cover.
It may or may not be the case, but heard rumors that they generally only train for a few hours once a year. They are issued little ammunition for training purposes and ranges to train at are becoming more rare as restrictions increase exponentially due to government and poorly qualified leaders in police forces that share antagonism toward firearms and firearms owners.
Note to Lynn: You will likely never hear the truth on either…..
Yes that is very true. Most cops have less training than your average legal owner. I took the shooting test with a cop friend in the US where they get far more training than in Canada and I passed with a 97%, which would qualify me for rapid response, other than physically I could never do it. The seasoned officers that day passed their recertifications with none getting more than 80%. My rage here closes completely when the police are there once per year. The next day we always have holes where they shouldn’t be.
I suspect that these kind of incidents were rare back in-the-day when Revolvers were standard issue.
Semi Auto requires a whole different handling skill, and each brand has it’s own uniqueness.
No need to touch and draw that gun unless there is a clear and present and verifiable threat.
I also wonder , if anyone here knows, because I’ve never seen it mentioned, what type of ammo are Police in Canada allowed to use in their handguns, ‘assault-style’ carbines ?
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