Bellevue PD says Dayton officer responsible for unattended gun

Police are promising an investigation after video surfaced Wednesday of a child walking by an unattended police rifle left leaning against a car in Dayton, Kentucky.

In a Facebook video posted on Jan. 24, what appears to be an AR-15-style rifle can be seen leaning up against a car across the street from where police are standing after responding to a domestic violence incident.

Dayton Police Chief David Halfhill said the rifle was accidentally set down when the officers interacted with the suspect.

In the video an officer walks away from the scene to his car, with his own rifle in hand. Other police officers walk in the other direction and take a suspect away from the scene and to a cruiser down the road.

No one walks over to the rifle.

The man taking the video calls out, "There is an assault rifle left unattended," pointing to the gun and getting the officer's attention. He gets out of his cruiser and starts to walk over.

An elementary-school-aged child walks by the gun without noticing it.

Finally, the first officer walks over and grabs the gun and takes it back to the cruiser.

Halfhill made a statement Thursday and said Dayton Police and Bellevue Police responded to the 1000 block of 5th Avenue for a domestic incident involving a gun.

At one point a male exited the residence and fired off a round into the air. Officers arrived at the scene and safely took the suspect into custody. He was taken to the hospital and treated.

"More importantly, great job to the responding officers that no one was injured during this event," Halfhill said in a statement. "Unfortunately, during the course or the incident another agency’s patrol rifle was accidentally set down when the officers were going 'hands on' with the suspect."

Bellevue Police Chief Lee Estepp said one of his department's officers convinced the suspect to come out of the home, but only under the condition that the officer left his rifle behind.

"To establish a rapport, and end this situation peacefully, the Bellevue officer handed his patrol rifle to a Dayton police officer for safekeeping," Estepp said in a statement.

Then the Dayton officer was waved over and left the rifle resting against the car.

"Unfortunately, the Bellevue officer was unaware that his patrol rifle was left unattended," Estepp said.

Body camera footage of the incident released by Bellevue police Thursday seems to corroborate Estepp's account.

In his 30 years with the department and working with Dayton officers, Estepp said he's never seen anything like this.

He also said these situations do happen during tense moments.

Estepp reviewed the footage of Bellevue Officer Marc Chapman and found that he did the right thing and walked an Enquirer reporter through the video Thursday afternoon. In the footage, Chapman can be heard calmly speaking to the suspect and ultimately ending the situation without further incident.

Harvey Hedden, Executive Director of the International Law Enforcement Educators and Trainers Association, has been training law enforcement officers for more than three decades. Hedden said this is obviously a bad situation.

"This is not what you want," Hedden said after watching the video.

He said leaving a gun unattended can be dangerous, especially if someone comes across it to take it or use it.

As a trainer, Hedden said he's seen tactical situations where officers get tunnel vision and have to go back and "clean up" once the situation is cleared.

He said judging from the video, he said one simple solution would have been for the officer to sling the gun over a shoulder.

He also suggested that the officer should have had another officer watch the gun for them.

"When we see these situations, they turn out to be an opportunity for better service and safety," Hedden said.

Luckily no one got hurt, especially since the child walks by and it is a residential area Hedden said.

"Sometimes you get so focused on the person you're dealing with that you forget about everything else," Hedden said. "It was a bad day at work and I'm sure they're talking about it already."

Joe Eaton with the Buckeye Firearms Association said while gun users should always maintain control of their weapons, he doesn't believe this was a dangerous situation.

"I don't think there was any immediate danger," Eaton said.

Eaton said it can be difficult to work with suspects when handling a long gun, which might explain why the officer set it down.

He said leaving the weapon behind isn't a police policy they would recommend. Eaton said he believes that the gun is an AR-15, which is a standard patrol rifle.

Eaton said it's a good thing that members of the community are having a conversation about gun safety after the incident. He said education about gun safety and proper handling of firearms is a key part of their organization's mission.

"That's how you develop a safer community," Eaton said.

According to the police department, Halfhill is currently out of town for training.