The Associated Press
BOSTON (AP) - A top Boston police official was not certified to use a pepper-pellet gun like the one that killed a 21-year-old reveler celebrating the Red Sox American League pennant victory last month, according to a published report, contradicting what his lawyer said.
Deputy Superintendent Robert E. O’Toole Jr., who was the commander of police operations on the night of Oct. 21 around Fenway Park, was trained to use the FN303 pepper-pellet gun at a five-day course last year in Ithaca, N.Y., his attorney, Timothy M. Burke, has said.
However an instructor’s guide says the training course only acquainted students with a variety of “less-than-lethal” weapons, including the FN303, The Boston Globe reported Friday. The company that offered the sessions, which included limited time for firing each of the weapons, also said the course did not constitute certification.
Burke said Thursday that course instructors would not have allowed anyone inexperienced or incapable to fire the weapons during the sessions, although he acknowledged that his client was not certified.
“He was eminently qualified to use this particular weapons system or, for that matter, any type of weapons system available to the Boston Police Department or any department anywhere across the country,” Burke said.
Victoria Snelgrove, an Emerson College student, was fatally shot in the eye with a pepper-spray pellet Oct. 21 by police trying to control a restive crowd that gathered after the Red Sox beat New York Yankees in the American League Championship Series.
Police have said they used pepper-pellet guns the night Snelgrove was killed in hopes of preventing serious injury after a small number within the crowd began lighting fires and throwing bottles, endangering others. Some who joined the celebration after the Red Sox won the American League pennant climbed rafters outside Fenway Park and the stadium’s famed “Green Monster” left field wall, near where Snelgrove was shot.
At least two other celebrants were hit in the face by the pellets, although the manufacturer advises that the guns should never be aimed at the head or neck.
Almost 30 officers took an eight-hour class offered by the FN303’s manufacturer, FN Herstal, in the spring, which certified them as instructors on the weapons. The training included classroom work and time on the firing range, the company said.
Boston police are investigating the shootings, and have not said who fired the pellet that killed Snelgrove. O’Toole was one of three officers who fired pepper-pellet guns the night Snelgrove was shot, the Globe reported, citing a police officer at the scene and another person involved with the investigation.
The BPD purchased the FN303 guns to assist with controlling protests during the Democratic National Convention last summer, but had not used them in crowd-control situations outside training before the Fenway Park shootings.
Civil rights advocates angry over Snelgrove’s death are circulating petitions seeking a temporary ban on the BPD’s use of the so-called less-lethal weapons. Police officials since have suspended their use pending the outcome of the investigation.
Boston police officials said O’Toole is restricted to desk duty pending the outcome of the probe into the shootings, but remains in command of the department’s Special Operations Unit.