Fla. cop reprimanded after being shot at 19 times by fellow cop

A barrage of police gunfire, 19 rounds in all, struck four mobile homes, two cars and a tree — everything it seemed, except the intended target: a fellow officer on the ground screaming, "I'm a cop!"

The last entry in a case of mistaken identity and misplaced firepower was issued in an Internal Affairs report this week, with the officer who was fired upon being reprimanded.

The incident unfolded in Oct. 28, 2013, when Hallandale Detective Tony Distefano joined in the chase of a suspect being pursued by Broward Sheriff's deputies. Thinking he was the culprit, two deputies fired 19 rounds at Distefano, missing them all.

A Hallandale Beach Internal Affairs investigation, released late Thursday, found Distefano, who was wearing workout clothes, at fault for not being dressed appropriately. The deputies who shot at him were cleared in an earlier Sheriff's Office investigation.

Hallandale Beach Police Chief Dwayne Flournoy defended his detective. "Thankfully, you averted tragedy, and deputies missed their intended target," he wrote in a memo to Distefano.

That the shooter who fired the majority of shots was exonerated, Sgt. Terence Thouez wrote in the Hallandale Beach internal probe, was "simply untenable" and "inexplicable." The "volume of fire," he said, was "not justified."

Read more at http://www.policeone.com/blue-on-blue/articles/8325897-Fla-cop-reprimand...