Police1 Staff Report
(Fairfax County, Va.) -- A police officer believed to be shot during an buy-and-bust operation Wednesday night was actually shot by an other officer, Fairfax police reported.
Officer Chad E. Mahoney, 27, was shot once in the chest by an officer whose name has not been released, the Washington Post reported. The officer was not seriously injured.
Police did not know whether Mahoney was wearing a bulletproof vest, police spokeswoman Julie Hersey told the Post.
Hersey told the newspaper that the shooting happened about 9:30 p.m. Wednesday after police arrested a man in an undercover drug deal in front of the Giant Food store near the intersection of Route 123 and Braddock Road.
Although police would not reveal the details of the shooting, Hersey did tell the Post, “These were two completely different events.”
An investigation is being conducted to determine how the officer’s gun went off.