Off-Duty Cop Accidentally Shoots Daughter

(AP)  An off-duty police officer in Connecticut shot and critically wounded his 18-year-old daughter, apparently mistaking her for an intruder after she sneaked out of their home and re-entered through the basement.

Eric Scott, 41, a member of the New Haven police force for nine years, has not been charged in the Tuesday shooting.

"Mr. Scott was under the impression his daughter had gone to bed for the night," Stratford Capt. Thomas Rodia said. "He did not expect his daughter to be outside or down in the basement."

Investigators said Tasha Scott left her home late Monday to meet a boyfriend. She triggered a backyard motion sensor light as she tried to enter through a basement door.

Awakened by the light, Eric Scott spotted someone moving in the basement bathroom, police said. He fired his department-issued pistol once, hitting the teen in the knee. The bullet traveled up her leg and lodged in her thigh area, police said.

The teenager underwent surgery and was listed in critical but stable condition Wednesday morning.

[vinepetal904]

back in custers day, folk were more likely to die crossing a river than in a gunfight ... poor custer should have wasted his time building bridges

[phydeux1]

"Any by the way, cops are usually trained to shoot somewhere like the knee, and keep the suspect alive. This guy did everything correctly." ----------------------------------- No, this is incorrect. I used to work as armed security and received the same firearms training as police do. You're taught to shoot for center body mass (CBM). That's why firing range targets have big ovals over the torso. You shoot for the largest target and shoot to kill. In fact, shooting to disable is likely to get you reprimanded for taking unnecessary chances by not shooting for CBM, and sued for crippling a suspect. Also, dead criminals don't file lawsuits. When a cop is forced to fire on a suspect in defense of a life, theirs or another, their first priority is to neutralize the threat. If that suspect, once neutralized, still survives, that's when the cop switches focus to trying to save their life.

[erasmus6]

jennmarie620

"That all being said, the man shot low enough to hit a leg and not a chest or head-which shows that he was not aiming to kill..."

I think it was just sh-t house luck that he happened to hit her in the leg. It was dark and he had no way of knowing how tall the person was or how far away they were. I don't think he cared one way or the other.

[sandy19731]

It was said before, I'll repeat it,
Why does an 18 year old have to sneak out or in?


Daddy seems a little strange.

[payingattn]

Sneak. Sorry, typo.

[payingattn]

Ok, and one more thing, according to my active imagination.... perhaps he was "playing with guns" in the basement and he accidentally shot his daughter... so they concocted this story so as not to make the cop look like a total idiot by confessing to the real story.

And as for the comment someone made about "if it had been a real intruder it would not have made the news." I disagree, it would have made the news in a story about an unlucky (or stupid) burglar who picked a trigger-happy cop's house to break into.

[payingattn]

P.S. to my last post

Re: calling it in first... assuming he really thought it was an unknown-to-him intruder, what if he'd missed, been shot himself, and then his daughter whom he thought was in her room would have been left vulnerable to attack herself with no backup or medical aid on the way.

[payingattn]

A couple of things caught my attention. She was 18 and had to sneek out to see this boyfriend? He didn't holler down into the basement to get on the ground, identify, etc., he just shot? I am wondering if the cop assumed the intruder was this "undesirable" boyfriend and didn't mind shooting him in the knee. And finally, from what I understand of police training, you don't approach a potentially armed person without grabbing your radio and at least calling it in first, and usually calling for cover.

[mulv70]

Here is my previous comments: The key sentence being JUST DISPUTING THE FOLLOWING STATEMENT BY CBLE11

Not defending the cop. Just disputing the following statement by cble11:

Any by the way, cops are usually trained to shoot somewhere like the knee, and keep the suspect alive. This guy did everything correctly.

[mulv70]

Boston 1954. Before posting you might want to take time and read what I actually posted. I was posting a statement by someone else and responding to it. Those are not my words.