Volunteer injured in law enforcement training in Pulaski County

FILE — A Pulaski County sheriff's office vehicle is shown in this 2019 file photo.
FILE — A Pulaski County sheriff's office vehicle is shown in this 2019 file photo.

A flashbang discharge during a law enforcement training exercise Saturday morning in North Little Rock severely injured a volunteer's hand, a Pulaski County sheriff’s office spokesman said.

Pulaski County sheriff’s deputies were sent about 11:30 a.m. to the Direct Action Resource Center at 6302 E. Valentine Road, where the accident occurred, spokesman Mitch McCoy said. The volunteer whose hand was injured was taken to a hospital, where he was undergoing treatment Saturday afternoon, McCoy said. The volunteer’s identity was not immediately released. The law enforcement officers training Saturday were all from out of state, McCoy said.

The officers were participating in an anti-terrorism training course scenario in which volunteers posed as residents or other characters, McCoy said. The person injured was a volunteer role-player and a reloadable diversionary flashbang went off, causing the injury, McCoy said.

A flashbang is a stun grenade that produces concussion wave and flash in order to create a diversion, according to Peacem Defense, a company which produces the devices.

The sheriff’s office is not pursuing a criminal investigation, McCoy said.

According to previous reports from the Arkansas Democrat-Gazette, the Direct Action Resource Center is a 740-acre training ground for urban combat. It opened in 1996. The company primarily trains police officers, federal agents and members of the military.

Phone calls to Richard Mason, listed as the contact person for the Direct Action Resource Center, were not immediately returned Saturday. Trey Kitchens, an attorney for the center, said late Saturday that "the DARC did not produce this item and did not give it to the person who was using it."

Read Sunday's Arkansas Democrat-Gazette for more details.

A previous version of this story incorrectly identified the device based on information from the Pulaski County sheriff's office.

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