MRI disarms police officer, fires shot

[William Knowles <wk () C4I ORG>]

http://www.techserver.com/noframes/story/0,2294,500257908-500396614-502363458-0,00.html

ROCHESTER, N.Y. (September 15, 2000 10:57 p.m. EDT
http://www.nandotimes.com) - The culprit that yanked a gun from a
police officer's hand and fired it got away scot-free. There was no
precedent for arresting a machine.

When the armed off-duty officer arrived at the hospital earlier this
week for a magnetic resonance imaging test, clinicians told him it was
all right to keep his handgun with him.

But as soon as he entered the room, the MRI device's heavy-duty magnet
pulled the .45-caliber gun right out of his hand and the weapon
discharged. The bullet lodged in an exterior wall and no one was hurt.

It took three hours to power down the magnet and free the weapon,
police said.

An MRI is four times as powerful as magnets used to lift cars in
junkyards, said Sgt. William Benwitz, who runs a firearms training
unit.

The weapon is out of service. Benwitz said firing the weapon was too
risky because its molecular structure might have been altered.

"Until we send this gun back to the factory, we're not even going to
test-fire it," he said. "The metal is more brittle than it should be."


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