Home Forums Hunting & Shooting Hunter's Campfire Officer Suspended After Dangerous "Prank"

What a Moron!

A Georgetown Police officer was indefinitely suspended Friday for pulling a dangerous prank with a colleague's gun.

Officer George Bermudez had been in trouble before. In April 2014, he was caught on video tripping, kicking and pushing Georgetown High School students as they rushed a soccer field following their team's victory in a state championship. He was suspended for 40 days.

Now Bermudez is accused of tampering with the sights of a fellow officer's duty rifle as a joke, according to an investigation by the Georgetown Police Department.
The report said Bermudez was at a Georgetown shooting range on Feb. 2, 2015 with other officers, including Officer David Lanier. Lanier left the range early, forgot his rifle, called Bermudez and asked him to pick it up.

Bermudez grabbed the rifle, denying other officer's offers to bring it to Lanier themselves, and took it to a Guns Plus gun store, where he discussed altering the weapon with store clerks "to teach him a lesson not to leave his [expletive] laying around."

"You brought Officer Lanier's duty rifle into the civilian gun shop, discussed the rifle with employees including tampering with the rifle, and allowed Guns Plus personnel to put their hands on the weapon, inspect it and manipulate the weapon's components," said the report, addressed to Bermudez.

Bermudez even texted a photo of a store clerk handling the rifle to Lanier, "which caused him great concern as to why you were allowing others to handle his duty weapon."

Store staff moved the gun's sights out of line, 12 clicks left and 12 clicks down. The next day, Bermudez returned the rifle, but never mentioned the sights had been changed.

Lanier worked two shifts with the manipulated gun. He worked the night shift on February 3, and responded to a gun call for which he unlocked his rifle and removed if from the mount, but did not have to use it.

On February 4, Bermudez told Lanier to check his rifle sights. Lanier asked if he was serious. He said he was.

"Officer Lanier immediately retrieved his duty rifle and discovered that both the red dot optics and rear iron sights had been tampered with and were 'way' off," the report said.

Bermudez told Lanier he had personally changed the sights, but did not mention the gun store.

Lanier caused concern when he relayed the story to superiors. An investigation began. Bermudez said he thought the department was overreacting.

Over the course of the months-long investigation that included interviews with several officers, the Guns Plus staff and a friend of Bermudez, the now-terminated officer gave conflicting testimony and lied on multiple occasions.

At the start, a police investigator asked Bermudez if his answers would stand up to a polygraph lie-detector test. He answered, "yeah, but I'll tell you right now I suck at polygraphs." The investigator reminded him he passed one to get his job.

Bermudez was asked if he or someone else changed the sights on Lanier's rifle. He said no twice. He failed two polygraph tests.

The report concluded, "Your actions are sincerely disappointing. You have breached my trust in your abilities to meet the expectations of a Georgetown Police Officer. You have breached the trust of your fellow officers. You have placed officers and our community at unnecessary risk as a result of your poor decisions. You have demonstrated the inability to provide truthful answers during this investigative process. Your actions demonstrate an ongoing pattern of poor decision making that is unacceptable and must not be tolerated. For these reasons, the only acceptable outcome is your indefinite suspension from the Georgetown Police Department."

Termination.

With EXTREME prejudice.

For both of them.

Who in the world forgets his rifle at the range?

If he thought an investigation was overreacting, he'd really hate what I'm thinking right now...

the guy sounds like a doofus


why would you take a pard's rifle to a gun store to "adjust" the sights?


and while I could see doing it as a practical joke, if you could immediately have the guy shoot it the minute you return it to him, that'd be one thing. To let him go on patrol with it? Fing Ahole


hell I'd be pizzed if a pard did that to a hunting rifle


the guy's a maroon

That is not a prank, and I too feel both should be dismissed. Forget a duty rifle? Geeeeeeze!

Word. At the very least the fella that left his rifle should be moved to a position of babysitting and handing out chit tickets with only pepper spray on his belt.

If the guy forgot his rifle at the range, one day he is going to set it on his trunk and drive off.

I don't know which "Georgetown" this is, but THIS should have gotten him fired:

"Officer George Bermudez had been in trouble before. In April 2014, he was caught on video tripping, kicking and pushing Georgetown High School students as they rushed a soccer field following their team's victory in a state championship. He was suspended for 40 days."

Sadly, he will probably continue in some L.E. position somewhere.

Wait a minute - we non-LEOs surely can not have the correct inside info here - we will need to get the real facts straight before commenting further. Clearly we need experienced LEO assistance in understanding and assessing this situation.

Georgetown north of Austin? Sounds upscale, I'm surprised the parents of those kids didn't get him fired back then.

Birdwatcher

That's not a prank. Pepperspray I'm the AC vents... That's a prank.

Yep...... That's why I asked "Which Georgetown".

Not sure what you are getting at, but the cop is an asshat and is likely getting fired.

How's is this some sort of "whatever" other than what it is?

Or is the fact that no one's defending the guy causing issues?

Georgetown, TX.

http://www.statesman.com/news/news/local/georgetown-officer-suspended-40-days-after-trippin/ngD3F/

Claimed the suspension for assaulting the high school students "wasn't fair" and got a reduction in his suspension.

http://kxan.com/2015/01/14/georgetown-settles-with-suspended-officer-who-tripped-students/

That was in early 2014.

Here's the article on the current incident:

http://kxan.com/2015/07/17/georgetown-officer-suspended-for-tampering-with-colleagues-rifle/

He is, of course, being represented by the police union.

" and his attorney cited cases where two other Georgetown officers who had more egregious issues had lesser punishments than he did." [re the tripping incident]

So...... "everybody else does it" is an effective defense.

At least it worked for him. His suspension was reduced.

Saddest thing is that if a parent of one of the girls he pushed down, had pushed the officer down in retaliation, that same Police Chief who is "outraged" would have arrested the parent.

Assuming one of the other cops didn't shoot him.

I like the "if" posts.


Could you come up with one where I win the lottery?

WORD!