Spokane Officer Barry O'Connell Gets One More Chance

The Spokane-Review reports

Two weeks before Spokane police Officer Barry O’Connell’s daughter accidently shot herself Easter Sunday with her father’s department-issued pistol, O’Connell had completed a gun safety refresher course stressing the importance of properly securing firearms – especially around children.

Documents obtained by The Spokesman-Review provide new details surrounding the near tragedy, including concerns from a departmental gun safety instructor who described O’Connell as having a nonchalant attitude about the importance of proper handling of loaded firearms. The documents also reveal, for the first time, that another child was endangered but unharmed during the incident.

Police officials suspended the 18-year veteran for three weeks without pay this summer for carelessly leaving his loaded police firearm atop his bedroom nightstand, where his daughter found it and shot herself in the leg. It was the 16th time O’Connell has faced internal investigation, and the decision to let him return to the force after his suspension was described as a “last chance.”

Officer Barry is a good example of the way in which some people are impervious to training safety warnings.They are absolutely incapable of handling firearms in a safe manner. The disgraceful coverup on the part of the police department and the "last chance" nonsense is not the solution.

When we discussed his case before we called it a police coverup and a slap on the wrist. That was about the criminal charges being dropped against this irresponsible character.  Now the internal investigation has done the same thing.

The accidental shooting came just 16 days after police Sgt. Matthew Cowles singled out O’Connell in the presence of other officers for mishandling his firearm during a mandatory safety course. The course had been ordered by the department following several incidents in Western Washington in which children were shot after finding their parents’ guns.

What is wrong with these people giving him another chance? Were they moved by his heartfelt declaration that he'd really learned his less on this time. 

“You have no idea what it’s like to carry (your daughter) in your arms bleeding out on your chest,” O’Connell said in the report. “There’s not a minute that goes by where I don’t second guess myself.”

It reminds me of the pathetic drunken gun owner who killed his brother.  In the Officer Barry case Deputy Spokane County Prosecutor Brian O’Brien declined to charge him with a crime. O’Brien wrote that O’Connell “accidentally” left the gun on the night stand, despite the officer admitting that he placed the loaded gun there to remind himself to clean it.

“By all study and legal review, this is an accidental shooting,” O’Brien wrote. “It may rise to the level of negligence, but does not constitute chargeable criminal conduct under these facts.”

What in the world is that supposed to mean? Even negligence is not chargeable?  If it's an accident we can shrug it off entirely, if it's negligence, still no charges are called for.

This is a problem.  Gun safety needs to be taken more seriously. 

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