(NewsNation) — A high school student in Western Indiana was sent to the hospital Thursday morning after the gun of a Vermillion County Sheriff’s Department deputy accidentally discharged.
The student, who reportedly has injuries that are not life-threatening, was struck and injured during law enforcement vocational training, officials say.
“During the course of instruction today, they were going through some drills, and during the course of that drill, the deputy’s service revolver accidentally was discharged, hitting one of our students,” South Vermillion Community School Corp. Superintendent Dave Chapman said while speaking with NewsNation affiliate WTWO on Thursday.
Chapman went on to say that normally, plastic derby guns are used as part of the class and the deputy in question had been teaching the course for three to four years.
“They were going through scenarios today about how to deal with a bad guy,” Indiana State Police Sgt. Matt Ames said, speaking with WTWO.
Chapman also gave an update on the student, reporting that he was merely grazed by a bullet and describing his pain level as minor.
“He was in really good spirits. When he was asked by the EMT the level of pain, he said it was a sting,” Chapman said.
South Vermillion High School officials wrote a statement on Facebook about the incident shortly before 10 a.m.
This morning at South Vermillion High School, there was an isolated incident in one of our vocational classrooms. The incident was an accidental discharge of a firearm by a law enforcement officer during a drill. One student was injured without life-threatening injuries and has been taken to the hospital. Only SVHS is currently on lockdown, due to the abundance of emergency personnel in the building.
South Vermillion High School via Facebook
Indiana State Police detectives are now handling the case, which includes interviewing students who were in the classroom when the gun was discharged.
“We’re doing interviews with all the students who were present in the room,” Ames said. “We’ll be interviewing the deputy who was involved in the situation. Once that’s completed, the crime scene investigators will go in, take all the information, and at the conclusion of the investigation it will be turned over to the Vermillion County Prosecutor’s Office for review.”
State police say the officer in question has 19 years of experience in law enforcement.