By Annmarie Timmins
The Concord Monitor
Related: N.H. officer’s gun discharges, hits other officer
CONCORD, N.H. — 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.
Police Chief Robert Barry declined to comment last night when presented with this scenario. He referred calls to Senior Assistant Attorney General Jeff Strelzin, whose office is investigating the shooting. Strelzin said he could not comment while the matter remains under investigation.
Smagula and Levasseur could not be reached last night. The presidents of their respective police unions declined comment.
Smagula has a reputation among his law enforcement peers for safety and professionalism. He is a well-respected instructor within the department. Levasseur was just named the department’s officer of the year and is similarly respected for his conscientiousness.
The names of the other two officers were not available last night.
Strelzin, whose office investigates all officer-involved shootings, said yesterday that he hopes to release a preliminary report about the incident late this week or early next week.
He said that report will identify the officers involved, describe why they were at the Granite State Credit Union and what they were doing when one of them was shot. If the state concludes criminal charges are warranted, the report will list the charges, Strelzin said.
Strelzin said he had hoped to get the report out sooner but has been unable to because the attorney working on it was called away to investigate a Nashua murder and two other cases.
The shooting happened about 4:30 a.m. May 1 inside the Granite State Credit Union on Sheep Davis Road. The bank is still under construction and is not scheduled to open until this summer. The authorities have said only that four officers were inside the bank when one of them shot another.
The officers did not call an ambulance and instead drove Levasseur to Concord Hospital, where he was treated and released.
Police sergeants are required to conduct training for the department’s officers, and the department sometimes conducts training in local buildings. William Roberts, a vice president of the credit union, said no one at the credit union received a request to use the bank for training. He said such a request would be customary.
It was not clear yesterday whether anyone in the police department had sanctioned the training inside the credit union or whether the department requires sergeants to seek permission for training in advance. The department’s policies regarding training were not immediately available yesterday afternoon but are expected to be available in the coming days.
The police were at the credit union the evening before the May 1 shooting, according to the department’s call logs.
At the Monitor’s request, the Concord police released its call logs yesterday for the days before and after May 1. The police did not release the call log for May 1 and referred a request for that date’s information to the state attorney general’s office. Strelzin did not release the May 1 call log yesterday.
The call logs that were released showed that two Concord officers, Brian Cook and Levasseur, responded to the bank about 6:15 p.m. April 30 for what is described as an “abandoned 911 call.” They left about 10 minutes later, the call log said.
The authorities have declined to say whether that visit was related to the visit the next morning.
The Concord police have referred nearly all inquiries to Strelzin.
Without naming Smagula, Deputy Chief John Duval said this week that the officer whose gun discharged has been put on paid administrative leave while the matter is investigated. Duval said paid leave is customary practice and not a punitive reaction to the shooting.
Duval said the other officers have not been put on leave. Duval said the police department will conduct its own internal administrate investigation when the state attorney general’s office has completed its inquiry.
Copyright 2008 The Concord Monitor