Criminal charges will not be filed against two police officers involved in an accidental shooting when a joke went awry two weeks ago.
Mt. Pleasant Police Chief Bill Yeagley, however, handed down discipline to Officers Ron Langworthy and David Van Dyke in connection with the Feb. 21 squad-room incident in which Langworthy, a 19-year veteran of the department, shot Van Dyke in the foot after Van Dyke jokingly asked someone to shoot him.
Van Dyke, who has been with the department 10 years, gave his off-duty revolver to Langworthy, stuck out his leg and "indicated for Langworthy to shoot him in the foot," according to a news release issued Friday by Isabella County Prosecutor Larry Burdick, based on information from state police Detective Sgt. Ed Doyle's report on the incident.
Doyle, whom Yeagley called to conduct a separate investigation from the department's internal examination, questioned Langworthy, Van Dyke and three other officers who were in the squad room when the shooting occurred, Burdick said.
Knowing that Van Dyke was on break from training and that Van Dyke is a firearms instructor, Langworthy believed the gun contained blank or "simunition," very low speed projectiles used in training.
Langworthy pointed the gun and pulled the trigger, Burdick said.
Only when he saw Van Dyke's reaction and saw blood on his boot did Langworthy realize that the weapon contained live ammunition, Burdick said.
The other officers in the squad room did not immediately realize Van Dyke had been shot.
Van Dyke told Doyle that he and Langworthy had trained many times using blanks and simunitions, and that coming from training, he understood how Langworthy would have thought that the gun did not contain live ammunition.
Van Dyke blamed himself for the incident, Burdick said.
Although declining to charge either Langworthy or Van Dyke, Burdick chastised the officers.
"An evaluation of the incident indicates that while each officer appeared to be operating under a reasonable assumption, forgotten were some of the rules related to gun safety, such as, never give someone a loaded gun, and always assume a gun is loaded," Burdick said. "This office, however, is not aware of any previous issues regarding firearm safety related to these officers in their almost 30 years' combined service."
Yeagley, who did not elaborate on the discipline against Langworthy and Van Dyke, said the two have exceptional records with the department and said the two are good officers who made a serious mistake.
The incident will be used as an example in future training.
"We've all learned some lessons here," Yeagley said. "We plan to not have to learn them again."
Burdick said he declined to file any charges after reviewing Doyle's report because he believes fault, to some degree, lies with both officers and because Van Dyke took complete responsibility for his injury.
"Rather, the matter is more appropriately left to whatever administrative sanctions the department chooses to impose," he said.
Burdick did forward his findings to Michigan Attorney General Mike Cox's office for review because the prosecutor's staff has worked with both officers for several years.
Posted by: SOT
that must be one quiet gun.
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