Officer accidentally shot person after they committed suicide. + Updates

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CHATTANOOGA, Tenn. (WTVC) - Police in Chattanooga, Tennessee say an officer unintentionally fired his department-issued firearm three times, hitting a person who had just committed suicide.

The incident happened around 11:35 a.m. Sunday morning.

Police spokeswoman Elisa Myzal says officers arrived and told a person who was acting suicidal to put down a handgun.

Myzal says the person shot and killed themselves.

According to the CPD release, the officer then accidentally fired three rounds, hitting a chair twice and the leg of the person.

All officers on the scene are now on leave, per CPD policy.

The investigation into this incident is ongoing.



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A police officer accidentally fired three shots after confronting a man who had just committed suicide, US local media has reported.

The incident happened at 4000 Oakwood Drive in Chattanooga at around 11.35 a.m. on Sunday, according to department spokesperson Elisa Myzal.

Police responded to reports of a suspect armed with a handgun when they found the man, who is currently unnamed, outside a residential home.

According to reports, the man refused to obey the officer's commands to lower his weapon and turned the gun on himself.

A police officer fired three shots at the man, including one bullet which struck a chair and another hit the deceased man in the leg, despite being mortally wounded.

The department's major crimes unit is now investigating the incident and the police officer who discharged the weapon has been placed on administrative leave.





Seriously how the fuck does this shit even happen?!  

Also how did he "unintentionally" or "accidentally" fire three rounds? Now I could see one. One would be almost acceptable, one could fall into the scope of thinking the officer just had a happy trigger finger, but not three.

Unless they were just going to make sure he was indeed dead, you know to help him out.

The cop wanted to be 100% certain the person became an hero.

Ziamber II wrote:

The cop wanted to be 100% certain the person became an hero.

The first one was probably an accident but it scared him so much he shot twice more

Dude should be kicked off the force.

W.A.R. wrote:

The first one was probably an accident but it scared him so much he shot twice more  

Dude should be kicked off the force.

3 round burst ?

STOP RESISTING

InsaneIntruder wrote:

STOP RESISTING

Well if you really think about it, he could have shot him in the leg to start with and possibly kept the man from taking his own life. BUT as it stands the officer for some reason fired off 3 rounds at an already dead man.

I'm still waiting on any type of update on the story.

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UPDATE: Chattanooga police officer Brian Cottell's attorney confirms he is officer being investigated for shooting a suicide victim.

When officers arrived at the apartment complex on Oakwood Drive over the weekend they told the man to put down his gun, he refused and fired a fatal shot.

That's when police say Cottell fired his gun, hitting the man once in the leg.

Cottell is on paid leave while internal affairs investigators look into the incident.

It’s not the first time Cottell has been investigated.

Channel 3 uncovered 11 other investigations into Cottell's behavior since 2013.

Investigators determined Cottell violated policy in 4 of those cases, but Cottell was only disciplined once in 2014 when he received verbal counseling for being rude on the job.

Cottell's attorney had no comment on his behalf about this latest investigation.




Clearly Officer Cottell has some issues.

The cops in this country are sooooo bad.

They are shooting at already-dead people now....ridiculous.

W.A.R. wrote:

The cops in this country are sooooo bad.

They are shooting at already-dead people now....ridiculous.

BAHAHAH!  

But sadly you are quite right.  Maybe Officer Cottell needs to seek employment elsewhere. The fact he has now started going around "capping" already dead people isn't a good sign.

W.A.R. wrote:

The cops in this country are sooooo bad.

I'd argue that the problem is more that police administration does a terrible job of weeding out/disciplining bad officers. This might be due to understaffing issues, but IDK for sure.

QuestionMark wrote:

W.A.R. wrote:

The cops in this country are sooooo bad.

I'd argue that the problem is more that police administration does a terrible job of weeding out/disciplining bad officers. This might be due to understaffing issues, but IDK for sure.

Granted being a cop is a very high stress, very demanding job. Not every one can handle it. This officer had several mishaps over the years. But what happened in this case could have been stress related in nature.

But when a officer starts shooting already dead people, that is a good indication that he is having some work related issues, and maybe needs to hand in his weapon for a little while.