AUBURN – A 13-year-veteran of the Auburn police force has been dismissed for accidentally firing a shotgun round through the side of his cruiser, sources said.
Officer Tim Morrell, a former school officer and police union president, was fired after the April incident, in which a mounted shotgun was discharged inside the cruiser.
Police and city officials were not releasing details, other than to say an officer was dismissed for reckless conduct.
Nobody was hurt during the April incident, during which the gun blast blew out a rear window of Morrell’s cruiser on Minot Avenue.
“We think the potential for human injury was high,” said City Manager Patricia Finnigan.
Neither Finnigan nor police Chief Richard Small would confirm the officer’s name, but several sources said it was Morrell who was dismissed.
The officer was taken off duty while the incident was investigated in late spring. He was fired by Small at the end of May, after an investigation and a hearing with Finnigan.
“The fact that the chief recommended his termination, and I agreed, shows how seriously we took this incident,” Finnigan said.
Morrell had been with the Auburn police force since 1991. He served for a time as a school resource officer and president of the police union in the mid-1990s. At the time of his dismissal, he was on patrol.
Finnigan said a city lawyer had advised her not to release specific details about the incident or information that would reveal the identity of the officer.
Morrell is appealing the firing, according to John Richardson, a lawyer for the Auburn police union. The union is assisting in the appeal, he said.
“Sadly, this is not the first time a firearm has been involuntarily discharged at the Auburn P.D.,” Richardson said. “This is the first time I know of that it ended in a termination.”
Morrell could not be reached for comment Wednesday night. The officer has been disciplined several times during his years on the force, police sources said. He was suspended at least twice, according to the sources, although details about what led to the punishment were not available Wednesday.
The officer was once investigated for an incident in which a bank ATM was struck by a police cruiser, sources said. Police and city officials would not comment on that matter. Morrell was not criminally charged for any of the violations for which he was disciplined.
The officer was fired after a year of tension between police and city leaders. Morrell was said to be an outspoken member of the force while cops and city officials argued about details of a police contract.
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