{"id":2531,"date":"2026-06-19T15:07:31","date_gmt":"2026-06-19T15:07:31","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/nextcitydigest.com\/?p=2531"},"modified":"2026-06-19T15:07:31","modified_gmt":"2026-06-19T15:07:31","slug":"police-investigating-whether-shooting-game-that-injured-california-cop-was-chronic-behavior-chief-says","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/nextcitydigest.com\/?p=2531","title":{"rendered":"Police investigating whether shooting game that injured California cop was \u2018chronic behavior\u2019, chief says"},"content":{"rendered":"<div>\n<div>\n<p>Pasadena police are investigating whether an officer-on-officer shooting that seriously injured one officer in September was an ongoing problem in the department, Police Chief Gene Harris said at a city council committee meeting Wednesday, June 18.<\/p>\n<p>Read more <a href=\"https:\/\/nextcitydigest.com\/?p=2529\">California and US West threatened by wildfires over coming days<\/a><\/p>\n<p>\u201cIn the interim, we don\u2019t know whether or not this was chronic behavior on the part of this particular team,\u201d Harris said, \u201cbut we do know that these particular people absolutely disgraced us with this type of conduct that was put out to the public.\u201d<\/p>\n<p><strong>RELATED: California cops were joking around with loaded guns when one officer shot, seriously injured another<\/strong><\/p>\n<p>City Council members also took issue with Harris\u2019 word choice in the critical incident video released June 10, referring to the shooting as \u201cout-of-policy horseplay involving loaded firearms\u201d and saying the shot was an \u201caccidental discharge.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>The discussion at the City Council\u2019s Public Safety Committee meeting followed the release of video that showed a Sept. 7 shooting in the department\u2019s parking garage at 240 Ramona St., which resulted in the officer who fired his gun being \u201cseparated from the department.\u201d After the video\u2019s release, new evidence that pointed to \u201ca significant issue with the officers that are involved\u201d resulted in two other officers being placed on administrative leave pending investigation, Harris said.<\/p>\n<p>In the video, one officer is seen pointing his gun at the arriving officer\u2019s vehicle before holstering it. Moments later, the officer who was driving fires a shot off camera, which strikes his front windshield before hitting the first officer in his left shoulder, seriously injuring him.<\/p>\n<p>Harris\u2019 word choice in the video drew criticism from Pasadena Vice Mayor Jess Rivas, who argued using the term \u201chorseplay\u201d risked trivializing the shooting.<\/p>\n<p>Read more <a href=\"https:\/\/nextcitydigest.com\/?p=2527\">Google\u2019s secret warrant fight over DOJ pipe bomb probe revealed<\/a><\/p>\n<p>\u201cIt\u2019s potentially criminal behavior \u2026 that could have gotten someone killed,\u201d said Rivas, who also chairs the committee. \u201cFrom my perspective as one councilmember, as one resident of this city, anyone who intentionally points a loaded firearm at a colleague at work should be fired, full stop. I don\u2019t understand how we can be taken seriously as an employer if you can do that and still keep your job.\u201d<\/p>\n<div>\n<\/div>\n<p>Pasadena police and the Los Angeles County District Attorney\u2019s Office are determining if anyone involved in the shooting should face criminal charges.<\/p>\n<p>During the personnel investigation, police deemed the shooting horseplay because it didn\u2019t legally qualify as an assault, Harris said. After discussing his word choice with Rivas, he said officials can rethink how they qualify the shooting in the future.<\/p>\n<p>Councilmember Tyron Hampton also disagreed with Harris over his use of the term \u201caccidental discharge\u201d rather than negligent discharge. Based on a legal definition, Harris said he believes the officers\u2019 actions leading to the shooting were negligent, but because the officer didn\u2019t intend to fire his gun, it was classified as an accidental discharge.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cTo me, the discharge itself is almost irrelevant,\u201d Rivas said. \u201cWhen you point a gun at someone, that is a risk of it happening. It could be accidental discharge, it could be negligent discharge, it could be an intentional discharge, but pointing a gun at someone, you only do that when you intend to destroy that target. And so the very fact that any officer ever pointed a loaded firearm at another officer, that in my mind is grounds for separation.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>Read more <a href=\"https:\/\/nextcitydigest.com\/?p=2525\">California ranked nation\u2019s No. 3 spot for natural disaster risks<\/a><\/p>\n<div>\n<\/div>\n<div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>At a city meeting, Pasadena councilmembers also criticized Chief Gene Harris&#8217; classification of the shooting as &#8220;horseplay&#8221; among officers.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":2530,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[2],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-2531","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-news"],"yoast_head":"<!-- This site is optimized with the Yoast SEO plugin v27.6 - https:\/\/yoast.com\/product\/yoast-seo-wordpress\/ -->\n<title>Police investigating whether shooting game that injured California cop was \u2018chronic behavior\u2019, chief says - 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