12 May 99

A K-9 officer with a small, Midwest police department accidently shot his own dog yesterday. He was “holding a suspect at gunpoint,” and his pistol “just went off.” He spent most of his subsequent TV interview mumbling sheepishly as he looked at his shoes.

Lessons:

>The cost of putting poorly-trained, incompetent police officers on the street is far higher than most people believe. The pittance that is saved by not training officers adequately, will pay big “returns” later, as you can see.

>When fingers are where they don’t belong and people are oblivious of where their muzzle is pointed, this kind of incident will continue to happen.

/John