Wounded cadet calls shooting ‘freak accident’

7 years ago

Fragments of the bullet accidentally fired at Maine Criminal Justice Academy Cadet Matthew Morrison on Monday are still in his leg.

“It fractured my femur,” said Morrison, 33, of Mars Hill, who on Wednesday was still hospitalized at Maine Medical Center in Portland. “And it did a lot of nerve damage. It hit me above my knee cap, and there was no exit wound. I still have bullet fragments in my leg.”

Morrison, an Aroostook County Jail Corrections officer, was sitting in the back seat of a pickup truck parked at the police academy in Vassalboro when he was shot accidentally by a fellow cadet, Matthew Benger, 24, of Portland, who works for the Cumberland County Jail.

Academy director John Rogers said Wednesday, “It’s against academy rules to have guns on campus. Firearms training is not a part of the basic corrections training program.”

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