Instructor who accidentally shot recruit broke safety rules

<p>A firearms instructor who accidentally shot and killed a police trainee at the North Central Georgia Law Enforcement Academy in Cobb County violated safety rules by bringing a loaded gun, officials said.</p><p>Tara Drummond, 23, a recruit with the Kennesaw Police Department, died Tuesday shortly after being shot once in the chest, said Cobb County Sheriff Neil Warren, who is leading the investigation into the shooting.</p><p>Ammunition is banned from the building, said Warren, who declined to release the instructor's name or any initial findings as to why he had the pistol.</p><p>Also, state policy bans any working firearm _ loaded or not _ from academy classrooms, said Bob Sanderson, assistant director of the Georgia Public Safety Training Center in Forsyth. The state oversees the center in Austell and nine other regional police academies.</p><p>"In the classroom, they use what is called a red gun, models that are made of red, hard plastic that are replicas of actual handguns," Sanderson said.</p><p>Warren gave no details on how or why the gun fired.</p><p>The instructor will remain on paid leave until an investigation by the sheriff, county police and Austell police is finished, Warren said.</p><p>The trainees were in a classroom in the basement of the academy when the gun discharged around 4 p.m. Tuesday, said Carol Morgan, the academy director. Drummond was taken to a local hospital where she died a short time later.</p><p>The instructor was treated briefly after the shooting for unspecified medical symptoms and continued to be under the care of a doctor Wednesday, Warren said. The 25-year Cobb County deputy sheriff has been assigned to the academy as an instructor for 10 years, Warren said.</p><p>Drummond, a rookie at the Kennesaw Police Department, was in her seventh week of the 10-week training course. She is the first Kennesaw officer to be killed on duty, spokesman Scott Luther said.</p><p>She began working for the 60-officer police department June 1 and started training Aug. 1. Drummond had hoped to become a detective someday, Luther said.</p><p>At Kennesaw police headquarters, flags were lowered to half-staff in Drummond's honor.</p>