By DUSTIN BLITCHOK
Of The Oakland Press
A Sylvan Lake police officer accidentally shot himself in the hand last month and struck another officer’s hip when his gun went off in the police department’s office in the city’s Department of Public Works garage.
Officer Michael Mondeau was preparing for duty at about 3 p.m. June 25 when his Glock 23 discharged, according to a report obtained using the Freedom of Information Act.
The .40 caliber bullet went through Mondeau’s left hand and grazed his abdomen before ricocheting off a countertop and striking Officer Eric Zuehlk’s hip.
The gun went off while Mondeau was inserting a magazine into the handgun, Zuehlk wrote in the incident report.
“Mike is extremely safe with firearms,”
Zuehlk said in a phone interview after the report was released.
The bullet “struck Mondeau in the palm of his left hand, exited the pinky side of his hand and grazed his abdomen. The round continued and struck the countertop approximately two inches from my left hip, ricocheted and glanced off my left hip,” Zuehlk’s report said.
Doctors let the shrapnel in Zuehlk’s left hip come out on its own; he was not admitted to the hospital.
“Mine were very minor injuries ... nothing serious,” Zuehlk said, adding that Mondeau is still out on medical leave and healing from the injury.
Six other officers were in the room when the gun went off, Officer Aaron Schultz’s report said.
Reserve Officer Paul Searle was putting on his boots in the department’s locker room when he heard “what appeared to be a gunshot go off” in the adjacent room. The reserve officer cut off Mondeau’s shirt with scissors and held a bandage to his hand until paramedics arrived.
The West Bloomfield Fire Department responded to the shooting and took Mondeau to McLaren Oakland hospital in Pontiac. A surgeon at the hospital said Mondeau did not break any bones in his wounded hand or suffer any nerve damage; the police officer was kept overnight for observation.
The spent bullet was found on the floor of the police department’s office. The blood and tissue left behind at the scene were cleaned up by Aftermath, Inc.
