By Police1 Staff
WASHINGTON — An internal affairs investigation was sparked after reports of a “dry fire” occurred during roll call on Saturday, WUSA9 reported.
An officer allegedly fired an unloaded weapon at the head of another officer on a Jan. 16 roll call as part of a training exercise about situational awareness. A sergeant told officers he had secretly ordered an officer to pull the trigger of a gun at another officer’s head until it audibly clicked.
“I can tell you there are about seven different versions of the incident that are out there,” Chief Cathy Lanier said to the news site. “I’m not sure which or how many of those that you’ve heard, but I prefer to wait until I see some facts and some direct statements of what happened before I make a judgment.”
Several sources told the news site that situation could have escalated into something deadly, as another officer could have fired on the officer who raised his weapon towards his colleague, Michael Tabman, a former Fairfax County police officer and FBI special agent told WUSA9.
“You shouldn’t be doing that kind of training,” Tabman said. “You just don’t put people in that fear and sort of invite tragedy, and that’s what this was—it was inviting tragedy.”
Both the officer and sergeant involved were assigned to regular duties pending the investigation, spokesman Sean Hickman told the news site.