Over the weekend, a76-year-old man was shot in the stomach while his son was the target of a raid. Emergency Services Unit officer Andrew McCormack was apparently trying to turn on his flashlight—which was mounted on his Glock—but accidentally discharged the gun and hit Jose Colon. A firearms instructor, who testified for a cop acquitted in the 1999 fatal police shooting of Amadou Diallo, thinks the gun-mounted flashlight is a terrible idea: Kenneth Cooper said to the Post, "A handgun should be a handgun, and a flashlight should be a flashlight. When you put a flashlight on a weapon system, there are numerous things that you have to manipulate, and under stress, things are more difficult."
The Post points out that a suspected drug dealer in Plano, Texas was fatally shot by a cop who was also reaching for his gun-mounted flashlight: The Texas cop claimed, "I never intended to have my finger on the trigger. I was only attempting to operate the flashlight mechanism."
The model of flashlight that McCormack was using—and the same one in the Plano shooting—was the Surefire x300. Surefire's Derek McDonald said he wasn't aware of the Plano case, "Our product is safe, has been proven safe. Used in a safe manner, it doesn’t lead to accidents. It prevents misidentification and saves police lives." But Cooper said, "I don’t like flashlights on guns, I never did. I personally don’t see the necessity...a flashlight to me is an unnecessary hazard."
McCormack was placed on administrative duty as the department investigates the shooting. Colon, whose son was arrested on drug possession charges after the raid, will be released from the hospital in a few days, but he's taking home a souvenir: Doctors weren't able to remove the bullet.
