You Don't Say

Questions Remain Unanswered About Concord Police Shooting

Citing an unnamed law enforcement source, the Concord Monitor reported Thursday that the officers were conducting a training exercise and the shooting was an accident. Police and investigators have not confirmed that report.

Uh-huh.

Conducting training exercises with live ammo on private property at 4:30 in the morning without the consent or notification of the property owner.

Yeah.

Right.

Color me skeptical.

FWIW, here's the version of the story currently being peddled to the Concord Monitor by the paper's "law enforcement source".

The four Concord police officers involved in an accidental shooting inside the Granite State Credit Union on May 1 were conducting a training exercise, a law enforcement source said last night.

The officers had unloaded their weapons before they trained, according to the source, who spoke on the condition of anonymity. After they finished training, they reloaded their guns. As the officers were leaving the credit union, one of them asked a question about a particular police maneuver, the source said.

At that point, Sgt. Steve Smagula demonstrated the move in question. When he did, his gun discharged, and he shot Officer Joshua Levasseur in the chest. Levasseur suffered only minor injuries because he was wearing a bulletproof vest.

Rhetorical Question of the Day:

Suppose I was sitting in a diner somewhere showing off my new carry piece to a friend, and I had "accidentally" discharged a round, and shot a cop eating his hash and eggs at the counter. Do you think his fellow officers would help me concoct a fairy tale like this one to cover my ass?

(previous post on this topic here)