The Curse of the Only One

Remember, the authorities would have you believe that the Only Ones (and this story certainly brings back memories of the origin of that phrase) professional and trusted enough to go armed are the police and other law enforcement agencies.

A police marksman is under investigation after accidentally shooting a colleague in an extraordinary blunder.

The victim, a civilian employee, was seriously injured in the accident at a lecture room at the HQ of Thames Valley Police near Oxford.

He was apparently being shown the workings of a police Glock pistol when it went off, blasting him in the torso.

The victim, aged in his 50s, was left writhing in agony with blood pouring from the wound.

Yep, the loaded gun in the class room just went off all by itself- odd how some inanimate objects just spring to life like that. Isn't it extraordinary how often that seems to happen when the police are involved? And how's this for irony-

"The firearms awareness session was taking place in a room on police property in Kidlington, Oxfordshire, and involved 11 police control room operators from across the force.

There will be an investigation into the incident but they seem to be somewhat hazy on the issue of whether or not anything bad actually happened.

IPCC Commissioner Deborah Glass added: "I have decided that we should conduct an independent investigation, using our own investigators, to establish the circumstances of this incident.

"The investigation will examine how live ammunition came to be present in a firearm during an awareness session and consider whether any criminal or disciplinary offences have been committed."

Someone gets shot when there was no need for a "marksman" to have live ammo in his weapon, regardless of the fact that he displayed terrible gun safety in not ensuring that the weapon was empty when he was demonstrating it. But the IPCC still aren't sure if he did anything wrong? And note too that they don't seem to be concerned with the actual shooting part- I guess they buy into that "gun went off by itself" thing too.

And here's the compulsory no names part of the story-

She added that details of the police marksman who fired the gun would be a matter for Thames Valley Police to reveal if they wished.

Well, well, well, Thames Valley Police- they do have a history of being extraordinarily open with the public...