And while there was that accidental death before the Carnival - the road march itself passed without incident. But there was a serious case of public terror when a shot or shots were fired as the tail of the carnival passed Nazarene High School on Princess Margaret Drive. All kinds of crazy accounts went out on social media - even one that three persons were killed by a grenade! And another that a two year old child was shot. But police say none of that actually happened. Here is their account of a single shot fired by an off duty police officer:...
ASP Desiree Phillips, OC - Eastern North Division
"Police officers met an off-duty police officer identified as Chris Staine who is a member of eastern division south and he was armed with his licensed firearm. According to him, he fired one single shot from his firearm as a result of bottles being thrown at him. With that, the officer was taken in, brought into custody, his firearm was retrieved from him. The entire process was done in terms of sealing the firearm. He is being dealt with at this time internally through our police act disciplinary. I have to say that based on that incident, we have no reports of any injury caused to anyone in that regards. I also know that I heard reports of other shots being fired, we have launched investigations in that matter, we have not been able to confirm identify of any other persons who fired any shots. What we have been able to establish was that no shots were fired at any specific person. From all accounts we have been able to gather is that the shots fired were in the air. I made it a point that our police officers, immodestly after this incident, were dispatched to all of our three main medical facilities, the KHMH, Medical Associates and Health Care Partners. Their mission there was to verify if anyone arrived there with any kind of injury. We confirmed with medical authorities that no one arrived at any of these medical facilities with any gunshot injury. The mother of this child was consistently maintained that her child was shot. I took time out this morning and I personally visited Medical Associated because through social media, she revealed the name of her child and she revealed where she took her child. I personally went to medical associates this morning, spoke to the chief of staff, shown records that the child was taken there with a laceration to the leg that is not consistent with a gunshot injury."
Reporter
"There were also reports that this officer may have been intoxicated, can you confirm? Was blood samples taken from him?"
ASP Desiree Phillips, OC - Eastern North Division
"Like I had indicated earlier, the officer was brought in. all that needed to be done in terms of processing was done. We decided internally as a department that the matter would have been dealt with through the police disciplinary code and that is what we have done. He was arraigned this morning before a police tribunal."
Jules Vasquez, 7News
"Why haven't criminal charges been brought up? Obviously discharging a firearm in public is a charge that will arise for a civilian."
ASP Desiree Phillips, OC - Eastern North Division
"When you discharge a firearm in public, you need a complainant to make a complaint. Somebody to say that 'I saw you fire a firearm'. In a police tribunal, you need probable cause. In a criminal court you need to prove beyond all reasonable doubt. There has not been a single complaint coming forward from any member of the public to say anybody who has discharged a firearm. Up to this point in time no one has come forward to share any information or to lodge any complaint of being affect by this incident any at all."
And while Phillips downplayed the incident, she did acknowledged that public terror can very easily be unleashed by licensed weapon holders who over-react to dangerous situations:..
ASP Desiree Phillips, OC - Eastern North Division
"We implore on the license holders to be responsible. You have a firearm license but the minute you pull your firearm and you decide you're going to draw that trigger. The onus lies on you, it doesn't matter if you're an on duty police officer, if you're an off duty police officer, if you're a member of the community. You are a silenced holder and the minute you pull that trigger, the onus lies on you to justify why you did so. I cannot speak for the officer so I don't know. Only he will have to answer before a tribunal why he pulled the trigger. We all know if it was one shot or 20 shots fired, one single shot caused a scare. One single shot caused a panic because people just ran, scampered all over the place. So just pulling a trigger in a mass gathering like that creates panic."
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