3rd police officer shoots self

FOR the third time this year and in the space of four months, three police officers have shot themselves in the foot while on duty.

The most recent took place on Wednesday afternoon at the Central Police Station, Port of Spain. Police said PC Legall was in the charge room with his Galil rifle strapped around his chest when the gun went off and a bullet struck him in the left ankle. The officer was taken to hospital by his colleagues where he remains warded.

His colleagues told Newsday that Legall is a great officer and the injury was not life threatening. The incident happened around 3.30 pm. In August, PC McClean was on patrol near MovieTowne along with PC Bart, who was driving a marked police vehicle when they got a report that a man had been seen with a gun in Cocorite.

The officers while responding went over a speedbump near the Marriott Hotel and McClean lost his grip on his firearm – a Galil rifle – and while trying to regain control of it, the firearm went off. The second toe on his left foot was shot off.

Two months earlier a police constable from the North Eastern Division Task Force was on patrol along Don Miguel Road when the strap of his MP5 got caught in the handbrake lever. While he was trying to take the sling off, the gun discharged and he shot himself in the leg.

During his one year media conference last month, Police Commissioner Gary Griffith said the issue was not the guns that his officers were using.

He added that he believed that all firearm arm users should be well-trained and made to visit shooting ranges regularly as part of the requirements for have a licensed firearm