Officer Lina Mino underwent surgery over the weekend after she was shot in the face during training on Saturday. Police say the active shooter training that took place for officers was not supposed to have ‘live rounds.’
Officer Lina Mino's condition has been upgraded to stable and she has been moved out of the ICU after she was shot during an active shooter training course at a local elementary school over the weekend, according to Sansom Park Police Department.
"Her Condition is serious, however, and she still faces more surgery in the days and weeks to come. We as a department are praying and trusting that her condition will continue to improve and that she will be back on Patrol serving the citizens of Sansom Park." said the department in a statement released Wednesday morning.
At 2:12 p.m. Saturday afternoon Mino was shot during an active training exercise at David K Sellers Elementary School in Forest Hill, according to Everman Police Chief Craig Spencer, who was asked to speak on behalf of the city of Forest Hill.
"This is truly, truly a tragic situation. This is not something that's common," Spencer said.
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Mino was transported to John Peter Smith Hospital in Fort Worth, according to Spencer.
Forest Hill police confirmed late Monday it was one of their officers who fired the shot that struck Mino and that officer has been placed on routine administrative leave.
The training was held by a company called Texas Police Trainers, according to the Texas Department of Public Safety.
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Officers from Forest Hill and Sansom Park were in attendance, along with other agencies that were not named.
On Monday, Chief James Burchfield, of the Sansom Park Police Department, confirmed for NBC 5 that two of his officers took part in the training on Saturday. Chief Burchfield noted that the training was advertised as being for "school-based law enforcement."
"Neither of my officers are school resource officers, but the training is valuable to all officers," Chief Burchfield said. "They were learning best practices for responding to an active school shooter."
"The community's continued prayers are powerful, effective, and much appreciated," Chief Burchfield said.
He said their force is made up of nine officers and this has taken a toll on the small department.
"We're doing the best we can under the circumstances,"said Burchfield who appreciated the help from surrounding police departments who have helped fill in for them so officers can be by Officer Mino in the hospital.
"The training provider is the one that provided the weapons, and this was not a live-fire training, but that's all I know. How a weapon was introduced, we don't know, and that's what we are hoping the investigation will turn over," he said.
Law enforcement experts say live rounds should not be used in these types of training.
“I can confirm that we don’t ever use live ammunition in any sort of exercise, that’s not common in law enforcement," explained Spencer.
Authorities didn't say who pulled the trigger, or if or what disciplinary action could follow.
"This is a catastrophic failure on the part of whoever coordinated this law enforcement training," said Mark Powell, a law enforcement analyst. "One of the first things that went through my mind is that it brought back memories of what happened to Alec Baldwin, How did live ammunition get mixed up with either fake rounds or they call the blanks how did that ever happen?"
The Texas Rangers are investigating this incident along with the Tarrant County Sheriff's Office.
In 2001, Officer Joey Cushman with the Arlington Police was shot and killed during a similar training exercise.
Fort Worth attorney Dwain Dent represented the Cushman family.
"The lesson from that that everybody should have learned is that you have to have absolute sterile conditions. No live ammo. No weapons that would allow live ammo," Dent said.
Dent also represented Mino recently in an unrelated car accident.
"I know Lena and she's a wonderful human being, a great person," Dent said.
NBC 5's Scott Gordon contributed to this report.
