Investigators decided a shooting in the Allegheny County Jail last month was accidental and no criminal charges are expected against the officer, county police Superintendent Charles Moffatt said Monday.
Jail Warden Ramon Rustin said when he receives final results of the investigation he will review policies and procedures at the jail to see if changes need to be made. The Oct. 21 incident wounded two people.
A Wilkinsburg police officer's pistol fired as he was putting it back in his holster in the jail's intake area, a garage where inmates are dropped off. The bullet hit the floor near the officer's foot and bullet fragments hit the legs of two people leading students on a tour through the facility, police said.
The volunteer chaperones were treated for minor injuries and released.
The officer, whose name was not released, remained on duty and likely will not face disciplinary action, said Wilkinsburg police Chief Ophelia "Cookie" Coleman.
"I'm waiting for the final report, but it looks like it was just an accident," Coleman said.
Mike Manko, spokesman for Allegheny County District Attorney Stephen A. Zappala Jr., said the office was not asked to look into the matter.
At the time of the incident, Dr. Bernard Bernacki said the students were touring the jail with Pittsburgh Reality Tour, an anti-drug education program run by Greenfield Organized Against Drugs. A group of Central Catholic High School students, with parents and other adults, were participating in the program with a youth group from Lawrenceville, said Bernacki, a member of the group.
Norma Norris, executive director of the nonprofit group CANDLE Inc. -- a Butler-based agency that oversees the Reality Tour Drug Prevention program -- said the Greenfield organization no longer is affiliated with her group.
Norris, in an e-mail, wrote that Greenfield Organized Against Drugs used to be licensed to conduct the tour but that license expired in March and was not renewed, because the Greenfield board "elected to re-create their own program with a more vigorous prison component," Norris wrote. The Oct. 21 tour was the first one the Greenfield group conducted, Norris wrote.
Bernacki and Central Catholic Principal Brother Robert Shaefer did not return calls seeking comment yesterday. Norris did not return phone messages.
Rustin said the jail does not check to make sure groups leading tours are licensed.
High school and college students, as well as community groups, tour the jail on a "regular basis," he said. The jail tries to limit the number of minor children allowed on tours and requires signed waivers and adult chaperones, he said.
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