Library Officer Is Killed During Safety Training

A retired police lieutenant enlisted to teach library officers how to use extendable batons shot and killed one of his pupils in Washington, DC, on Thursday, according to police. Jesse Porter, 58, is charged with involuntary manslaughter in the shooting death of Maurica Manyan, 25, of Indian Head, Md., a police rep tells the Washington Post. Metropolitan Police said Porter, a professional trainer who retired from the police department in November 2020, was contracted by the Anacostia Neighborhood Library in southeast Washington to provide training to officers on the use of extendable batons and it wasn't clear why a live firearm was involved, let alone used.

Police Chief Robert J. Contee III said Manyan was shot toward the end of the training session as she, Porter, and about four other library police officers were gathered in a meeting room. "The instructor discharged a single round from a firearm which struck the decedent," according to a police statement. "Not sure, in this situation, why the trainer had a live weapon in a training environment but it’s not good practice to do that," Contee added at a press conference. Manyan wasn't breathing when police responded to the scene shortly after 3:30pm and was later pronounced dead at a hospital, per WTTG. Police said Porter was arrested and charged later Thursday after "consultation with the United States Attorney's Office for the District of Columbia." (More shooting death stories.)