On September 15, 2010, 35-year-old male Dan De Kraai died in Saint Joseph, Missouri, following a firearm discharge during a police training exercise. A patrolman with the St. Joseph Police Department, De Kraai was participating in a training session with the department's Special Response Team at the former Neely School building. The team had been conducting hostage rescue scenarios using Simunitions, which are non-lethal plastic training rounds designed to simulate live fire for tactical
instruction.
During a break in the scheduled training, De Kraai and a fellow officer left the immediate training area and went to a nearby convenience store. Before leaving the facility, both men followed standard procedure by switching their training weapons, which fired the plastic rounds, for their fully loaded service weapons. Upon their return to the school to resume the session, the officers did not immediately switch their firearms back to the training models before re-engaging with the group.
As the two men prepared to restart the drill, De Kraai reportedly asked the other officer to shoot him with a Simunition round so he could experience the sensation of the impact. The fellow officer, momentarily forgetting that he was still carrying his service weapon rather than the training firearm, drew his gun and fired a single shot. The round struck De Kraai in the back. He was immediately transported to Heartland Regional Medical Center, where he was pronounced dead shortly after arrival.
An investigation was launched immediately following the shooting to determine the precise sequence of events. The inquiry confirmed that the discharge was unintentional and stemmed from the failure to exchange weapons after the break. The death was officially ruled accidental. The officer who fired the fatal shot was placed on administrative leave following the incident, a standard protocol in officer-involved shootings, but no criminal charges or arrests were reported in connection with the case. De Kraai was survived by his wife and young daughter.
