SANSOM PARK, Texas — Editor's note: The video above is from a report on Nov. 7, 2022.
An officer with the Tarrant County city of Sansom Park who was shot through the left eye last November during a training exercise is now suing the company behind the training.
Officer Lina Mino is suing Texas Police Trainers and its CEO and owner, Janice Washington. Mino was shot during an active shooter training course held by the company last November, blinding her in her left eye and leaving her with a brain injury due to the bullet traveling through her brain and exiting through her skull above her left ear, the suit states.
"Texas Police Trainers – holding itself out as a “one-stop-shop” that helps “ensure our law enforcement community are highly trained” – violated the most basic safety rules that led to Lina’s permanent eye loss and brain injury," the suit's introduction reads.
The training course was held Nov. 5, 2022 at David K. Sellars Elementary School and instructed by Paul Gaumond. Mino was shot by another student in the course, also a law enforcement member, who carried a firearm loaded with real ammunition into the training area, the suit detailed.
Forest Hill police said at the time of the accident that this wasn't a live-fire training and that they don’t know how a loaded weapon was introduced.
The suit states Mino had to undergo brain surgery to remove the bullet fragments and argues that her injuries were caused by the negligence and gross negligence of Texas Police Trainers and Washington.
Texas Police Trainers were negligent by failing to assure all trainees in the course were unarmed and disarmed, the suit argues, as well as by allowing a loaded firearm and live ammunition in the training session and failing to perform proper safety checks before and during the course.
The suit further alleges that the acts or omissions by Texas Police Trainers involved an extreme degree of risk to Mino, and that the company proceeded with conscious indifference to her safety and welfare -- constituting gross negligence.
Mino is seeking damages in excess of $1 million and is asking for a jury trial to determine the actual amount awarded.
In a statement to WFAA, the Texas Commission on Law Enforcement said it suspended both the training contract of the Forest Hill Police Department and Gaumond's instructor certificate, effective Thursday, Nov. 10, 2022.
WFAA has reached out to Texas Police Trainers for a statement but has not received a response yet.