EDINBURG — The Edinburg Police Department have decided to permanently close its shooting range following an incident Friday in which a person at a nearby residence was struck by a stray bullet.
“Chief has made other arrangements for training in the near future and that particular shooting range has been closed indefinitely,” Public Information Officer Arielle Benedict said.
The shooting range was operating as usual Friday: officers training with gunfire. This resulted, however, in an elderly man being struck by a stray bullet in the 3800 block of Jutland Street in Northeast Edinburg, according to the Hidalgo County Sheriff’s Office.
Although Hidalgo County Sheriff Eddie Guerra said the injury wasn’t life-threatening, residents reported bullets striking homes and vehicles.
“Until we can get casts on the ballistics and confirm it that those bullets came from our shooting range, we have to confirm that and be sure of that, before we say anything and disclose what happened,” Benedict said.
While an active investigation is ongoing both internally with Edinburg police and formally by the sheriff’s, the department closed its shooting range and began a search for another location to resume training.
“The officers have to train,” Benedict said. “We have to train annually. We have to shoot quarterly. We have to shoot as much as we can and train as much as possible, and so our chief is making other arrangements with other departments to, in the meantime, to have us keep up with our training.”
