AP Exclusive: Accidental shootings show police training gaps
MARTHA BELLISLE
Associated Press
SEATTLE (AP) — When an Iowa mother tried to take her child from her husband during an argument on a snowy sidewalk in 2015, an officer stepped in to stop the scuffle, but he accidentally fired his weapon as a dog approached. The bullet went through the woman's arm and into her chest, killing her as her family watched in horror.
When a Minnesota sergeant stopped a motorcyclist after a 2015 high-speed chase, he stepped out of his patrol car with his firearm drawn, flush with adrenaline, and accidentally shot the man in the arm.
And an Arkansas police officer fatally shot a suspect in 2012 as she tried to get him into handcuffs.
Accidental shootings by law enforcement have happened in recent years at agencies small and large and at all levels — city,