Firearms are relentlessly unforgiving of the smallest lapse in attention or good judgement.
The shooting of a special police officer during a training exercise at a D.C. library came as the group of trainees had gathered to take a picture and were ‘joking around,’ according to court documents.
[The shooter, a retired POlice lieutenant], who conducted the training as a private contractor, was arrested Friday and has now been charged with involuntary manslaughter in Manyan’s death.
Before, during, and after training or dry practice, there’s no room for “joking around.”
One of the very first things I learned in the Army from the men who had just returned from Vietnam was:
F8ck around, f8ck around, get yourself or someone else killed.
It’s a lesson I’ve kept in mind for 50 years. RIP Officer Manyan.
tacticalprofessor 
https://www.odmp.org/officer/26315-special-police-officer-maurica-manyan
I recall a similar situation in, I think, Cobb County, GA. An instructor returning from lunch with a live gun, shot a student dead. Seems like anyone leaving a “Training Area” should be rechecked to assure no live weapons are in play.
Steve:
Another heartbreaking story. This is why I make a concerted effort to never point my blue guns/SIRT gun at anyone, nor do I permit any student to do so. Just a bad fucking habit to get into.
All it takes is a moment’s inattention to get bitten in the ass big time. This is the second such incident I have read about in just the last couple of years. I don’t see a need to point guns at people and pull triggers… even in training.
One can teach shooting and even tactics without having to actually point at people and pull triggers. I tell my students that even if they are holding someone at gun point, point the muzzle at the ground between the persons legs. That way, a negligent discharge will not result in an unintentional injury… considerable embarrassment, yes. And that will also allow them to a unobstructed view of the BG’s hands & waistline, where the really danger lies.
And the time to get back on target if needed is but a fraction of a second. (I actually suggest that my students, should the need arise, to shoot while raising their gun muzzle to target.
IOW, stitch the bad guy by putting one in the pelvic girdle, then two to the chest and then onto a head shot if possible. If you are justified in applying deadly force, groin or head or chest, it matters not. And breaking a pelvic bone can sometimes be a better threat stopper than two center mass.
Stuff like this really pisses me off. So easily avoidable. When you work with firearms, accidents are bound to happen. That is a given.
We take all precautions to minimize the danger but that possibility can never be totally eliminated. But, hell, what happen here was nothing less than an open invitation to a painful tragedy that can and will destroyed lives. So fucking unnecessary. So preventable. God I pray I never fuck up like that. (End of rant)
Evo
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As commented above, isn’t the point of ‘blue’/SIRT guns to give the class (students and trainers) the ability to point at targets, some of them human? I can definitely understand having a universal classroom rule, like: “Do NOT eff around with the ‘blue’/SIRT guns, until and only when the head trainer gives permission.”
Otherwise, those training tools are never to be picked up off a table, unless they’re immediately holstered. And then they’re never drawn, until specifically instructed to do so for the scenario; otherwise, back in the holster in a safe manner. There is no playtime in the classroom or on the range.
And I don’t understand the “point between the legs” training point, but some of the reasoning sounds good in terms of negligent discharges. But if it is a moment of truth, I want the bad guy to see more of my muzzle and bore.