THEY are still running with the ORIGINAL "gun-dropping moron" story, from yesterday, at http://www.kyw.com/now/story/0,1597,328490-406,00.shtml:Bullet Grazes StudentPhiladelphia, PA
Wednesday, February 06, 2002 - 10:33 PM ET
(AP) A 10-year-old boy was grazed in the right cheek by a bullet that apparently discharged Wednesday afternoon when an off-duty police officer conducting a school demonstration dropped her gun, officials said.
The child, James Reeves, was taken by ambulance to Temple University Children's Medical Center and treated for a graze wound to the cheek before being released about three hours after the incident, spokeswoman Jennifer McGowan said. "I am stunned. This is the first time I can recall something like this happening," acting police commissioner Sylvester Johnson said.
Officer Vanessa Carter-Morange, 39, who has been on the force for 5 1/2 years, was reassigned to desk duty pending an investigation. Johnson declined to discuss possible disciplinary action but acknowledged that she could lose her job.
Carter-Morange's own child was among the 23 fourth-graders in the class shortly before 3 p.m. at the Imani Education Circle Charter School in the city's Oak Lane section.
As part of a demonstration, Carter-Morange was showing the gun and magazine clip to the class. She had just put the clip back in the gun when she dropped the weapon, principal Francine Fulton said. The gun discharged, and the bullet ricocheted off the floor and hit the child, she said.
Fulton did not know if the gun discharged when it hit the floor or when the officer retrieved it, and would not say whether the officer was in uniform.
"I'm not sure what kind of demonstration it was," said Sgt. Roland Lee, a Philadelphia police department spokesman. Officers conducting programs in schools might carry a gun, but shouldn't pull it out, he said.
The charter school, which is run by a community board of directors, was cordoned off Wednesday afternoon and treated as a crime scene as parents arrived to pick up their children.
Shalawn Edwards received a call telling her to pick up her daughter, Seani, who is in first grade. "I was really frightened. I didn't know what to think," she said.
Tim Williams rushed to the school to pick up his son Armani, a kindergartner who typically has after-school activities until about 6 p.m., after he heard about the shooting on the news. "It's too close for comfort," he said.
Children from the same school were involved in an incident Friday in which a substitute bus driver allegedly threatened unruly students, saying he had a weapon and ordering them to keep quiet. Police later stopped the bus and found the 58-year-old driver with a 9 mm semiautomatic gun.
The driver, who had a permit for the weapon and apparently did not brandish it, was questioned by police but not charged.
Watch Eyewitness News for an update on this story.
Associated Press
