Since the original thread (and dupe) were both locked . . . . .

A BART police detective who fatally shot his supervisor during an apartment search in Dublin appears to have fired a single shot after momentarily regarding his colleague as an armed threat, sources familiar with the investigation told The Chronicle on Saturday.

Investigators do not believe the shooting of Sgt. Tom "Tommy" Smith, BART's head of detectives, was the result of an accidental gun discharge, the sources said. Instead, they said, Tuesday's tragedy appears to represent a split-second misjudgment of a threat by another detective,

The sources said the circular layout of the ground-floor, 723-square-foot apartment at the Park Sierra complex on Dougherty Road appears to be a factor in the case.

The bathroom of the unit has two entrances - one connecting it to a laundry room near the front door and the other to a corridor at the rear of the bedroom with closets on both sides. Smith and Maes had separated during the search, sources said.

Not linked but this appears to be new information and more can be found at Sfgate website.

Maybe this thread won't get locked.

Hope not.



What a cluster and a tragedy.
 

SFGate story here

This reminds me of an incident about 15 years ago when a group of federal agents were searching a house for an armed felon.

He was not there, but one of the senior agents while clearing a room saw his own reflection in a large mirror and shot the mirror... for a split-second he thought it was an armed man he claimed!

I know the guy. Sheer fear was the best way to describe his demeanor!

Some people are not cut for the job!

A rookie in a local department down my way took a shot at himself in a mirror on a search. They announced and were clearing a house on an alarm or open door, turned the corner and saw an armed man pointing a gun. He shot, turned out to be a full length mirror.

Luckily, their training department stood by him and said lets send him for some house clearing training instead of trying to jam him up.

Damn, and they were wearing vests, which is still rare this day and age for PC officers. Wonder where the hit was/protection factor of vest.

Sad.