Buffalo, N.Y. (WBEN) - It was a rare instance during the St. Patrick's Day Parade in Downtown Buffalo on Sunday when one of Buffalo Police's SWAT sniper rifles fell from the rooftop of a building at Delaware Avenue and Allen Street onto the sidewalk below.
"We had SWAT officers that were an observation post on the building at Delaware and Allen, they had a rifle with optics on it that was mounted on a tripod. The tripod had a bag that was weighted, holding it down," Buffalo Police Commissioner Joseph Gramaglia detailed on Tuesday during a press briefing. "At one point, the information we've received is that the weapon was moved back even further away from the edge. We're looking at, what appears to be, a large wind gust that caught a hold of the weapon, flipped it over, and caused the tripod with the weapon to fall over the side of the building and onto the ground."
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According to Gramaglia, there was nobody below in the rifle's path and nobody was hit by the weapon. In addition, the rifle never fired as it hit the ground, as the Commissioner says the weapon is not designed to allow for that to happen.
Gramaglia adds there were several officers that were detailed to that corner below, and they were able to quickly recover the weapon that fell.
"We've opened an internal investigation into the circumstances surrounding this. Without having the benefit of hearing what the members had to say, out of fairness to them, I want to get their statements," Gramaglia said. "Obviously, this is something that doesn't happen, and I don't ever recall hearing something like this happening. Part of this internal investigation is going to be looking into the protocols going forward. On the tripod, you can see in that picture there's a bag, it's a weighted bag so that it aids in holding that down. So we have to look at further protocols and those changes. Again, it's the unfortunate world we live in as to why we have them where we have them through various mass gathering incidents."
Gramaglia says the investigation will look into whether or not the proper protocol was followed in this situation. If the protocol was followed and the sniper rifle still fell, he says they will then have to look into other policies and procedures to ensure this never happens again.
"This was, I would be confident in saying, the best one, most thorough planned event that we had. This is something that occurred, this is not a lack of planning," Gramaglia said. "We have to look at protocols. It's not something that we're going to change our planning for, it's how do we account for something that just doesn't happen. But it happened, and we have to improve on that. We have to make sure that doesn't happen again."
More from Commissioner Gramaglia is available in the player below:
The photos below were obtained by WBEN directly from the person who took these photos. They wished for their identity to remain undisclosed.
