Instructor Accidentally Wounds Recruit

A firearms instructor demonstrating how to safely use a handgun at the Sheriff’s Department firing range in Orange accidentally discharged his pistol Tuesday, sending a bullet ricocheting off a wall and striking a recruit in the neck and collarbone.

The 25-year-old recruit, whose name was not immediately released, suffered only minor bruising and was back training at the range within an hour of the accident, Orange County Sheriff’s Capt. Dan Martini said.

The instructor, a 17-year-veteran firearms trainer, was at the target gallery about 10 a.m., showing a class of 27 students how to draw, aim and fire a pistol. Using a 9mm semiautomatic Glock handgun, the instructor stood 15 feet in front of the students and removed the weapon’s clip, Martini said. He then pulled back the gun’s slide to remove any rounds still in the chamber but somehow failed to dislodge a remaining bullet.

The instructor turned to face a brick wall at the side of the range, drew his weapon, slowly raised it, and carefully squeezed the trigger. The bullet in the pistol’s chamber slammed against the wall, and either a piece of brick or a bullet fragment struck the recruit.

The bullet would have lost about 80% of its speed after hitting the wall, and probably posed little risk of seriously wounding anyone, Martini said. The student suffered a bruise to his collarbone and a welt on his neck.

The injured recruit received treatment at St. Joseph Hospital in Orange, and then asked to return to the range to finish his training.

“I saw him and asked him whether he wanted to go home, he had gone through something very traumatic, but he just said, ‘Let’s get back and learn,’ ” said Martini, the Sheriff Department’s training commander.

The recruit and his 26 colleagues are in their third week of training to become sheriff’s special officers, a position that entitles them to carry a gun and a badge but ranks them below deputies.

Investigators are examining whether the weapon malfunctioned or whether the instructor, whose name was not released, violated safety protocol, Martini said. The trainer, who is affiliated with Santa Ana College, is certified by the FBI and the California Commission on Peace Officer Standards and Training to teach firearms classes, Martini said.

Martini said there have been misfirings and accidents at the range before but could not remember any resulting in an injury. About 1.5 million rounds are fired at the target gallery each year without injury, Martini said.

The present facility on Katella Avenue was opened in 1987, after renovation sparked by complaints from tenants of a nearby building that they were finding rounds in their parking lot and on the roof.

While the sheriff’s range has seen few serious mishaps, tragedies have struck other police firing ranges in Southern California during recent years.

In 1998, a Santa Ana police weapons expert accidentally shot himself at the city’s firing range while examining an outlawed assault firearm. In March, a 10-year veteran officer at Montclair Police Department was seriously wounded after being struck in the head by a ricocheting bullet at a San Bernardino sheriff’s firing gallery.