(Photos by Tyler Tjomsland, The Oregonian)
You knew I was gonna speak to this one, didn't you?
In Portland, a mentally-ill man who was reported as possibly harassing, or menacing children was taken down by an officer with a beanbag shotgun.
Well, actually, that's what he meant to do, but apparently he somehow wound up with buckshot loads in his orange shotgun instead of beanbag rounds, and the mentally-ill guy is in the hospital in critical condition.
(I don't understand why the victim, Kyle Monroe, is alive. The officer–Dan Reister, a fifteen-year veteran of the PPD–fired four times, a fifth round was ejected, and all of them were live. Not great shooting, is it?)
The situation around the indicent is still not clear. (Article here), and maybe the guy needed what he got. But I'm guessing not, because the Chief and the Mayor quick like bunnies held a news conference and apologized all over the place, so I'm guessing when the wash is done, there are going to be stains on the uniform.
Might be that Reister didn't load the gun, but policy is that LTL shotguns are supposed to be unloaded at the end of each shift, and reloaded once they are checked out of the armory next time; more, you aren't even allowed to carry live rounds on your person when you are using the orange shotguns. Though you apparently can keep them in your ammo bag in the trunk mixed together.
Unless you are seriously color-blind or loading the weapon in the dark, that yellow beanbag round ought to be obvious. Five times? That's a serious brain short-circuit.
Somebody screwed up big-time. The question is, who?