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Ricocheting bullets from shooting range break window, force school lockdown
By SHERRI GALLANT
and STACY O'BRIEN
Lethbridge Herald
It must have been divine intervention that kept two stray 9-mm police bullets from hitting any one of dozens of children playing at recess at Lethbridge Christian School Tuesday morning.
But somehow one of the bullets -- that Lethbridge regional police say came from their weapons during firearms qualifications -- travelled 1.44 kilometres up and away from the Fish and Game shooting range in the river valley, smashed through a spare bedroom window and lodged in the wall of Jamie Deck's apartment on St. James Blvd. N. next to the school's playground.
"If someone was down in that room it could have been much worse," Deck said. The bullet entered the basement room and ricocheted off the windowsill. It passed between a computer desk where Deck often sits and the cage for his pet chinchilla, Kahlua, before lodging in the wall above the closet just after 10 a.m.
Deck was watching TV on the main floor of the fourplex rental property when he heard a sound downstairs.
"It sounded like something tipped off all over the floor," he said. "I didn't think it was a bullet at first."
He walked downstairs to the spare bedroom and saw glass on the windowsill and futon. Walking outside he saw a hole the size of a peach in his window and a bullet lodged in the corner of his apartment a metre away.
"It was really scary at first. I found myself staring out the windows thinking is there another bullet on the way."
Deck called the Lethbridge regional police right away.
"I didn't call on the emergency line but I thought this is probably an emergency."
When Deck reported the incident, police called the school and asked that the children be brought inside, where they were placed in lockdown mode until officers could assess the kind of situation they were facing.
As police searched the area around the house they found a second bullet, which appeared to have reached the end of its steam without hitting anything. It simply fell to the ground in a parking lot beside the house. Before they were finished, they'd also found a rifle round embedded in the home's exterior siding.
"It appears that all three rounds came from the Fish and Game shooting range," said Staff Sgt. Jeff Cove. "And the 9-mm bullets are likely from our firearms qualifications, which were going on at the time."
Later in the day, police found another window was broken out on the main floor of a vacant fourplex apartment next to Deck's and a slug from a bullet was found. Police couldn't confirm if it was a police slug or when the window was broken out.
The rifle round did not come from police weapons, Cove said, and appears to have been there longer. Regional police do not use rifles at the range but the range is used by many members of the gun club who do. The range is approved by the Canadian Firearms Centre for that purpose.
"They were deflections," Cove said of the 9-mm shots. "The bullets are deformed, they bounced off rocks or something, and it's amazing how they travelled. It's 101 metres up to the coulee top from the range, then another 937 metres from the coulee edge to the house. The school is 88 metres south of the house but the playground is immediately south of the house."
Cove said police were able to conduct precise measurements using satellite technology.
The Fish and Game Association has closed the range until its own and police investigations are complete.
"It's bizarre," said Allan Friesen, co-range chairman. "It just doesn't make any sense. Last year we just went through a federal inspection process and got approval and our re-certification for another five years. And since then, we've taken even more measures to reduce the chance of ricochet, things we weren't even required to do, extra safety measures. We are very concerned and we will be looking at the portion of the range they were using to try and identify if there's a flaw."
The Professional Standards Unit of the Lethbridge regional police department has launched an administrative review; a procedure that examines whether rules, policy and procedure were all being followed at the time of the incident.
"Qualifications won't be happening until we know for sure if it's safe to use the range," Cove said. There's no ready alternative, since the police department's own shooting range, in the river valley south of Whoop-Up Drive, closed a year ago when an officer was injured. The 16-year veteran constable was taking part in a close-range shooting drill when a fragment ricocheted back out of a steel bullet trap behind his target and clipped him on the inside of his left leg. The investigation into that incident is not yet complete.
Deck and his wife Susan have lived at the apartment for just over a year. He said he has heard shots from the range when he was outside barbecuing and has even done some target practice himself at the range in the past.
When he finally got his wife on the phone Tuesday she said to him, "We're moving. We're getting out of here." He said if the range opens again they'll probably move.
By SHERRI GALLANT
and STACY O'BRIEN
Lethbridge Herald
It must have been divine intervention that kept two stray 9-mm police bullets from hitting any one of dozens of children playing at recess at Lethbridge Christian School Tuesday morning.
But somehow one of the bullets -- that Lethbridge regional police say came from their weapons during firearms qualifications -- travelled 1.44 kilometres up and away from the Fish and Game shooting range in the river valley, smashed through a spare bedroom window and lodged in the wall of Jamie Deck's apartment on St. James Blvd. N. next to the school's playground.
"If someone was down in that room it could have been much worse," Deck said. The bullet entered the basement room and ricocheted off the windowsill. It passed between a computer desk where Deck often sits and the cage for his pet chinchilla, Kahlua, before lodging in the wall above the closet just after 10 a.m.
Deck was watching TV on the main floor of the fourplex rental property when he heard a sound downstairs.
"It sounded like something tipped off all over the floor," he said. "I didn't think it was a bullet at first."
He walked downstairs to the spare bedroom and saw glass on the windowsill and futon. Walking outside he saw a hole the size of a peach in his window and a bullet lodged in the corner of his apartment a metre away.
"It was really scary at first. I found myself staring out the windows thinking is there another bullet on the way."
Deck called the Lethbridge regional police right away.
"I didn't call on the emergency line but I thought this is probably an emergency."
When Deck reported the incident, police called the school and asked that the children be brought inside, where they were placed in lockdown mode until officers could assess the kind of situation they were facing.
As police searched the area around the house they found a second bullet, which appeared to have reached the end of its steam without hitting anything. It simply fell to the ground in a parking lot beside the house. Before they were finished, they'd also found a rifle round embedded in the home's exterior siding.
"It appears that all three rounds came from the Fish and Game shooting range," said Staff Sgt. Jeff Cove. "And the 9-mm bullets are likely from our firearms qualifications, which were going on at the time."
Later in the day, police found another window was broken out on the main floor of a vacant fourplex apartment next to Deck's and a slug from a bullet was found. Police couldn't confirm if it was a police slug or when the window was broken out.
The rifle round did not come from police weapons, Cove said, and appears to have been there longer. Regional police do not use rifles at the range but the range is used by many members of the gun club who do. The range is approved by the Canadian Firearms Centre for that purpose.
"They were deflections," Cove said of the 9-mm shots. "The bullets are deformed, they bounced off rocks or something, and it's amazing how they travelled. It's 101 metres up to the coulee top from the range, then another 937 metres from the coulee edge to the house. The school is 88 metres south of the house but the playground is immediately south of the house."
Cove said police were able to conduct precise measurements using satellite technology.
The Fish and Game Association has closed the range until its own and police investigations are complete.
"It's bizarre," said Allan Friesen, co-range chairman. "It just doesn't make any sense. Last year we just went through a federal inspection process and got approval and our re-certification for another five years. And since then, we've taken even more measures to reduce the chance of ricochet, things we weren't even required to do, extra safety measures. We are very concerned and we will be looking at the portion of the range they were using to try and identify if there's a flaw."
The Professional Standards Unit of the Lethbridge regional police department has launched an administrative review; a procedure that examines whether rules, policy and procedure were all being followed at the time of the incident.
"Qualifications won't be happening until we know for sure if it's safe to use the range," Cove said. There's no ready alternative, since the police department's own shooting range, in the river valley south of Whoop-Up Drive, closed a year ago when an officer was injured. The 16-year veteran constable was taking part in a close-range shooting drill when a fragment ricocheted back out of a steel bullet trap behind his target and clipped him on the inside of his left leg. The investigation into that incident is not yet complete.
Deck and his wife Susan have lived at the apartment for just over a year. He said he has heard shots from the range when he was outside barbecuing and has even done some target practice himself at the range in the past.
When he finally got his wife on the phone Tuesday she said to him, "We're moving. We're getting out of here." He said if the range opens again they'll probably move.
