Errant Bullets Lead to Closing of Firing Range
District of Columbia Police Chief Charles H. Ramsey shut down two of the department’s firing ranges Thursday, 10 days after bullets from one of those facilities landed in a residential neighborhood.
“For me it boiled down to a simple question: Would I feel comfortable with my own 12-year-old son playing in the backyard of one of the houses that was struck by the live fire from our range? It took me a nanosecond to know I would not,” Ramsey said during a radio interview.
A dozen homes and three vehicles in Lorton, Va., were hit by submachine gun bullets that came from the range at the Lorton Correctional Facility on May 24. No one was hurt, but some of the bullets came dangerously close to striking residents.
Ramsey called it a “training mishap.” He said officers were on their backs shooting up at targets at the time of the incident, and the angle of the shots caused the bullets to whiz over a dirt embankment.
“Open-air live-fire ranges and populated residential areas simply do not mix,” Ramsey said.
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