Listen, I’m all for goofing off at work. My job is basically goofing off at work, but when I do it, a gun usually isn’t involved. Unfortunately for one Pasadena police officer and the colleague he accidentally shot in the shoulder, that wasn’t the case last September. Making matters even worse was the fact that this happened inside the department’s parking garage in an incident the police chief described as “unsafe, out-of-policy horseplay.” Yeah, I’ll say.
Police cruiser dash cam footage — which lacks audio — shows the car pulling into the garage behind two uniformed officers standing behind a Ford Explorer police cruiser with the trunk open. As the cruiser approaches, we can see the officer on the passenger side of the Explorer pull out his gun and point it directly at the cruiser. Chief Gene Harris called this move “inappropriate,” according to the Los Angeles Times. After a few seconds, that officer reholstered his gun and his colleague smiled. That’s when things really turned sideways. We can’t see exactly what happened inside the cruiser, but this is when the officer driving the car, identified as Roy Alatorre, drew his gun and “pointed it toward the other officer, during this interaction, the driving officer’s firearm discharged.”
The single round flew through his vehicle’s windshield and hit the officer about four seconds after he reholstered his gun. He then moved to the side of the SUV as other officers in the garage rushed to help him. The chief says he sustained serious injuries, but he has since recovered.
Stupid dumbass idiot
The video was kept under wraps by Chief Harris for nearly 10 months because he invoked an exemption to a state law requiring police shooting to be released, citing an investigation, according to the Los Angeles Times. But when it was finally released earlier this week, we were able to see what these nimrods did to each other. Technically, under California law, police departments are required to release the public audio and video records of police shootings and other critical incidents involving great bodily injury within 45 days of the incident. In this case, nearly 280 days had passed.
Harris says Alatorre has since “separated from the city,” according to the LA Times, and he added that the LA County District Attorney has received a criminal investigation for review from the department and Police Officers Standards and Training for the state have been informed. He also called the conduct “regretful” and not up to the department’s expectations. It should be noted that the DA’s office says it hasn’t received a report from the Pasadena police on the incident.
The unnamed officer who was shot is still with the department, but it’s not clear if he’ll receive any additional disciplinary action, according to ABC7 Los Angeles. That’s a toughie, because he definitely shouldn’t have been messing around with his gun like that, but he also did get shot, so in some ways, he was punished for his actions almost immediately.
“Horseplay and/or failure to adhere to safety rules and standards of professional conduct will not be tolerated,” Harris told ABC7. “This regretful conduct is not consistent with the expectations and service commitments of this department, and appropriate actions will be taken to ensure our culture reflects appropriate conduct, values and service to this community,”
Pasadena Mayor Victor Gordo, as you may have imagined, is not thrilled with how this video has made his city look, either, telling the LA Times, “This type of unprofessional behavior is unacceptable and cannot be tolerated. The police chief assures me the incident has been thoroughly investigated and appropriate discipline taken and I support the chief’s decisions.”
