BY TANYA BRICKING
The Cincinnati Enquirer
Cincinnati police will stop using blank rounds in training until they find out what went wrong when recruit Rebecca Hopkins was shot in the back by a trainer.
The Westwood woman's injuries are more serious than her colleagues first thought. Ms. Hopkins, 25, daughter of retired District 4 Officer William Hopkins, was in critical condition Thursday at University Hospital after surgery to remove her spleen and left kidney.
Officer David Simpson, 37, an eight-year veteran who was helping with training Wednesday night, shot her at close range in the lower back with a .38-caliber blank round during a low-light training scenario at the division's Evendale target range, police spokesman Lt. Roger Wolf said.
Ms. Hopkins was not wearing a bulletproof vest. One was not required for the training exercises.
Ten recruits and four trainers were practicing search-and-arrest techniques in a wooded area on the grounds of the range when the shooting happened about 9:10 p.m.
In the scenario, the trainers were the only ones firing, using .38-caliber revolvers with blanks. Police have not determined whether Officer Simpson intentionally pointed at Ms. Hopkins or how close he was to her when the gun fired.
"If you would have told me last night a blank would have put someone in critical condition, I wouldn't have believed you," Lt. Wolf said Thursday.
But the shooting was a lesson to everyone that blanks are not "caps," and the damage they can cause is real.
"A blank is an empty shell packed with powder and has a little cardboard backing to keep the powder from falling out," said Kitch Rinehart, an owner of Target World, a Sharonville gun shop and shooting range. "It has no projectile (bullet)."
Blanks are used by professionals and amateurs alike.
"We sell blank shells for people who want to make noise, scare birds, things like that," Mrs. Rinehart said.
A .38-caliber blank would have to be shot at close range to injure someone, but the kinetic energy and shock can be lethal, said Dr. Scott B. Frame, director of trauma and critical care at University Hospital.
"People don't realize how dangerous blanks can be," he said. "They have the same powder load as a bullet with a lead slug on it. So when it is fired, it puts out a very concentrated blast of super-heated, fast-moving explosive gas that at very close range can cause as much damage as a regular bullet or shotgun injury."
Hollywood actor Jon-Erik Hexum was killed in 1984 after shooting himself in the head with a blank-loaded pistol.
Actor Brandon Lee, son of the late martial arts expert Bruce Lee, died in 1993 after he was hit in the abdomen by a projectile that came out of a gun rigged to fire blanks during filming of one of final scenes for the movie The Crow.
As recently as last month, a blank round killed Melvyn Nurse, 35, a minister in Jacksonville, Fla., after he shot himself in the head with a .357-caliber Magnum during a sermon comparing sin to Russian roulette.
"Guns are meant to kill," said Nancy Hwa, spokeswoman for the national Center to Prevent Handgun Violence.
But in the world of police recruit training, safety is the top priority.
"We've got to find out what went wrong," Lt. Wolf said. "It was never meant to turn out like it did."
The accident has been emotional for everyone involved, he said. Officer Simpson is on a routine three-day administrative leave. The other 42 recruits are continuing to prepare for their Dec. 11 graduation. Psychological counselors are available to help recruits deal with the stress of having one of their peers shot, Lt. Wolf said. And night maneuver practices will continue, he said, without the blasts of blank rounds.
