The Associated Press
CINCINNATI (AP) - A sheriff’s officer who had just graduated Tuesday from the corrections academy was fired a day later after his handgun went off, injuring himself and a woman, authorities said.
Hamilton County Sheriff Simon Leis Jr. fired Shawn J. Weyer, 24, before Weyer’s release from jail Wednesday.
“He obviously doesn’t fit our criteria to be an employee of this department,” sheriff’s spokesman Steve Barnett said.
Weyer had been celebrating with friends at a party at a Cincinnati apartment early Wednesday, hours after graduating from the academy, when his personal 9mm handgun discharged as he was showing it to his friends, city police said.
He is accused of accidentally shooting himself in the left hand and a woman in the leg while drunk. The woman was treated at a hospital and released.
Weyer told police he had consumed several beers. Police charged him with misdemeanor crimes of improperly firing his weapon while intoxicated, discharging a firearm within city limits and negligent assault.
Weyer said he hoped to talk with the sheriff about being reinstated but that he wouldn’t fight the firing if Leis did not reconsider.