A Missoula County Sheriff’s deputy is now on paid administrative leave after briefly forgetting her service weapon in a faculty bathroom of a public school last week.
Missoula County Undersheriff Rich Maricelli says the incident unfolded last Friday afternoon.
“The officer was using the restroom and, in that process, left a firearm inside the faculty bathroom. Literally within moments of the incident occurring it was discovered, and she regained possession of it,” Maricelli said.
The Missoula County Sheriff’s Department is conducting an internal investigation and its only school resource officer is now on paid administrative leave pending its outcome.
Maricelli describes the officer’s actions as an unfortunate incident.
“Obviously it was a safety risk, but it wasn’t a safety risk beyond the few moments that it was left unattended and found and identified by another adult directly after that. Without minimizing it to any degree, shape or form – it was a serious event – it was immediately dealt with at that point, so we deemed to not call individual parents and notify everybody,” Maricelli said.
The department refuses to release the officer’s identity or where the incident took place until the investigation is complete.
“We want to turn over a clean investigation to our Detective Captain, our professional standards investigator. It’s a small community and I understand that a lot of people may or may not already know at this point but anyway, that will come from another source other than our department at this time,” Maricelli said.
The Missoulian newspaper reported earlier this year that the Missoula County Sheriff’s Office only school resource officer, Rebecca Birket, accidentally fired her weapon during an active resistance training back in May.
Maricelli said Monday the department’s resource officer had requested to be transferred out of that position even before Friday’s incident.
He says it will be at least several weeks before the department has a permanent resource officer back in county schools.
