ADDISON COUNTY — Detectives from the Vermont State Police Bureau of Criminal Investigations were called to the Vermont Police Academy in Pittsford on Oct. 1 at around 8 p.m. for a training accident involving a trainee for the Middlebury Police Department.
Detectives learned that police recruits were involved in a low-light firearms training scenario supervised by certified firearms instructors. During the training scenario, Daniel Ailinger, 23, accidentally discharged his firearm while removing it from his holster, state police report.
Training staff from the Vermont Police Academy immediately evaluated Ailinger and discovered that he had sustained a non-life threatening abrasion to his leg. They took Ailinger to Rutland Regional Medical Center, where he received medical attention, after which he was released and returned to the Vermont Police Academy.
Ailinger is a member of the Middlebury Police Department and is a member of the 108th Basic Training Class for Police Professionals.
“I wouldn’t even call it a wound,” Middlebury Police Chief Thomas Hanley told VTDigger.org. “It’s not even a scratch — more of a bruise.”
In other recent activity, Vermont State Police troopers:
•  On Oct. 3 at approximately a quarter to 5 p.m. stopped a motor vehicle on Greenbush Road in Ferrisburgh. Police charged Robert Evarts, 63, of Colchester for driving with a criminally suspended license.
•  On Oct. 5 at around 5:35 p.m. responded to a disturbance at Brookside Drive in Starksboro. Troopers investigated and said they determined that Melissa Preston, 41, of Starksboro engaged in violent, tumultuous behavior and threw beer at a victim in the presence of a child.
Police cited Preston for disorderly conduct and for committing an offense in the presence of a child. She is due to answer the charges in Addison Superior Court, criminal division, on Dec. 9.