A Pinecrest police officer is recovering after being accidentally shot in the arm by a fellow officer during a firearms training exercise.
The incident happened Wednesday at the Homestead Training Center on Southwest 304th Street in southwest Miami-Dade County.
Pinecrest Police Chief Jason Cohen said the shooting is believed to have been accidental.
“One of our officers was shot during the training. At this point, we have no reason to believe it was anything but accidental,” Cohen stated.
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The injured officer, a woman, was shot in the forearm by another female officer. Cohen says she was quickly tended to by other officers, who applied a tourniquet and rushed her to the hospital.
“She’s in great condition. She’s going to be just fine. That’s the best news that we could have. She’s in good spirits, just surrounded by her family,” Cohen added.
Local
NBC6 sat down with former Miami Police Chief Frank Fernandez, who has over 30-years of law enforcement experience.
Fernandez told NBC6 he spent 13 years as the team lead on Miami PD’s SWAT team, and says he’s undergone the same training at HTC as a sworn Miami reserve officer.
He provided insight into the scene of the investigation captured on video by NBC6 cameras high above the training range Wednesday.
“The situations that you just saw here today are tragic. They’re terrible. But they are accidents,” he said.
Chopper 6 footage showed activity at a tiki hut on the property, which is where Fernandez says officers are usually briefed by safety instructors.
Aerial video also revealed blue tarps held up by barrels, meant to simulate a firearms training exercise in close quarters, such as a house, office, classroom, etc.
In between the tarps were barrels that seemingly simulated a threshold or doorway. Helicopter video shows investigators and a man, whom Fernandez identified as training instructors, appearing to reenact what may have occurred during the shooting incident.
Fernandez tells NBC6 it’s an important simulation for officers’ readiness in responding to active shooter scenarios.
“The idea here is that one officer goes to one side, the left side, as he just went through that door. And the second officer would wrap around,” Fernandez explained while analyzing aerial video from Chopper 6.
Fernandez says that in spite of safety measures in place, such as instructors staying in proximity to the officers during the simulation, and having the ability to intervene if necessary, accidents can’t always be eliminated as a possibility.
“This is part of a training ground for them. They’re supposed to make mistakes. These mistakes are not supposed to happen, but they can happen,” he said.
Miami-Dade PD responded to the incident, but the Florida Department of Law Enforcement will lead the investigation.
Pinecrest PD says it will be conducting its own internal investigation as well.
