Bizzare accidental shot

[Dakotaranger]

The Grand Forks Harald is reporting:
http://www.grandforksherald.com/account/index.cfm?user=login&return_page=http%3A%2F%2Fwww%2Egrandforksherald%2Ecom%2Farticles%2Findex%2Ecfm%3Fid%3D69652%26section%3Dhomepage%26freebie%5Fcheck%26CFID%3D12025109%26CFTOKEN%3D16597303%26jsessionid%3D88309b7b246f1e730326

*John “Jack” Hammen, 54, stood waiting for the person who had invited him to do some practice shooting Wednesday morning. The Grand Forks certified public accountant had his .45-caliber handgun and a box of ammunition.

As he waited, the box of ammo slipped out of his hand and fell to the floor. Somehow, a round went off, blasting a hole in the carton and sending a slug flying.

It sounded, Hammen said later, “like a .45 being fired in an indoor stairwell.”




The entrance of the law enforcement building steps are taped off in the lobby Wednesday morning. Grand Forks police are questioning a man who says that when he dropped a box of ammunition one round went off. Herald photo by Jackie Lorentz.
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Capt. Kerwin Kjelstrom
If it had happened anywhere else, Hammen probably would have had a better day Wednesday. But this was the lobby of the Grand Forks Law Enforcement Center, home to the city police and the county sheriff’s office.

Officers came running, weapons at the ready.

Police closed the lobby about 10:05 a.m. and used yellow tape to further close off the area near the stairwell while they searched for the spent round. Doors were locked at both the main and Fifth Street entrances until about 11 a.m.

“We heard a shot go off in the hallway,” said Capt. Kerwin Kjelstrom, one of about five officers who responded. “A number of us ran out and found sitting on the stairwell a gentleman who said he dropped a box of ammunition and one round went off.

“You hear a round go off, and everybody wonders: ‘What are we going to find when we go out the door?’ Fortunately, nobody was hurt.

“It sure got my heart started, though.”

‘No devious intent’

Detectives questioned Hammen in an interview room while other officers searched for the .45 slug, which they found behind a row of seating near the center’s main entrance on the west side. It was undamaged and appeared not to have struck anything hard before settling behind the window seating. When a round goes off outside a gun’s chamber, the force behind the slug may be dissipated, officers said.

Still, the loud report — Kjelstrom likened it to a clipboard smacking the floor flat — got lots of sworn hearts racing.

“This is a police department, and there are people who are not happy with us,” he said.

But officers quickly determined that Hammen had no beef and no devious intent. He had a permit for the handgun and an invitation to use the center’s basement firing range. The ammo box with the frayed hole “supports his story,” Kjelstrom said.

“They told me, ‘It was an accident — what can you do?’ ” Hammen said later. “It wasn’t irresponsible gun handling or negligence.”

It was a box of factory-produced shells, he said, not hand-loaded, and he had taped the box closed “so the flap couldn’t fly open,” spilling shells.

“I was flabbergasted” when one went off, he said, and the detectives who questioned him were equally dumbfounded. “They said it’s unheard of” for a round to go off the way it did, he said.

“They said I should go buy a lottery ticket, because that’s what the odds were like.”

Hammen, a former geography professor at UND, said he occasionally shoots at a private range and this was — or would have been — his first visit to the police range. He did not identify the officer who issued the invitation.

Will he try again?

“If somebody invites me,” he said.

Kjelstrom said he cannot recall anything like Wednesday’s incident happening at the law enforcement center before, but he said the department plans “a review of how people come in, how their weapons are secured and how they use our range.”

I would like to know what ammo he was using.

[leatherman92]

now that is wierd

[Hazcat]

I assume (ya, I know) we are talking ACP not Colt?  Factory of handloads?  Primer type?

[hodman]

This happend at an outdoor range with a 40S&W. One round hit the sidewalk and went off. Brass went into a leg

Jon

[HAWKFISH]

interesting...

[Sponsor]

[m25operator]

A friend of mine was a commercial reloader using a Dillon 1000, he built a chute to guide the bullets off the work bench into a 5 gallon bucket. About a 42" drop. He did that for a long time until one round hit another just right and it went off in his garage, nobody hurt, but scared him. He raised the bucket after that. Just mentioning it for anyone else out there using this practice.

[DDMac]

A Clinton PD (MS) cop had a habit of absent mindedly rubbing his left thumb over the base of the spare revolver rounds in his duty belt loops. One lovely Mississippi evening, he was standing in the tiny lobby, in front of the dispatcher and his relief officer, talking and rubbing those rounds, when one went off. Blew out two shell loops, but only one fired. He got a burn and a sprained hand, and we both bought enclosed dump pouches next day. It was S&W brand, as I recall, but don't remember who made it for them back then. Manufacturer said it was either heat (friction) or static electricity. Very strange. Never carried loose rounds in my pocket after that. Don't even want to think about it. Especially after what happened to Hillary that time when Bill was trying to teach her to shoot in Arkansas. Yep, same deal, carrying ammo in her rayon lounger pants pocket. Coined a new word in the lexicon: BOOMBOX!!   
Good reminder, DakotaRanger. Thanks, Mac.

[Hazcat]

A Clinton PD (MS) cop had a habit of absent mindedly rubbing his left thumb over the base of the spare revolver rounds in his duty belt loops. One lovely Mississippi evening, he was standing in the tiny lobby, in front of the dispatcher and his relief officer, talking and rubbing those rounds, when one went off. Blew out two shell loops, but only one fired. He got a burn and a sprained hand, and we both bought enclosed dump pouches next day. It was S&W brand, as I recall, but don't remember who made it for them back then. Manufacturer said it was either heat (friction) or static electricity. Very strange. Never carried loose rounds in my pocket after that. Don't even want to think about it. Especially after what happened to Hillary that time when Bill was trying to teach her to shoot in Arkansas. Yep, same deal, carrying ammo in her rayon lounger pants pocket. Coined a new word in the lexicon: BOOMBOX!!    Good reminder, DakotaRanger. Thanks, Mac.

Need another SHOVEL here.   

[DDMac]

Well, I didn't actually SEE what happened to her. Just heard about it. Apparently, based on his behavior, she is still having problems.... you know, with... I'll shut up now.
 Mac.

[gunman1911]

That is BIZZARE, never heard off that had occasions where I burned the trash a gun cub and soon learned  to take it down to one of the ranges start the fire and go back up the hill and wait ,sure enough BANG!