Body of fallen federal agent killed at gun range taken by escort to funeral home
MIAMI - Dozens of officers on motorcycles and in their vehicles honored fallen officer Jorge Arias on Friday as his body was taken in a somber procession and slowly through the streets of Miami.
From the Miami-Dade Medical Examiner's office to the Caballero Rivero funeral home in Little Havana.
Officers could later be seen hugging each other in a show of support for the 40-year-old Arias who has been a Customs and Border Protection officer for the past 9 years.
Authorities say he was shot and killed just before 10:30 a.m. on Wednesday at the Trail Glades range.
See also: Wife of fallen federal agent speaks out.
CBS4 news partner, The Miami Herald said he was shot once in the chest and was involved in a role-playing scenario in which an officer tries to subdue a bad guy. The newspaper reported that the officer who shot Arias accidentally replaced his training pistol with his handgun which had ammunition in it.
On Thursday, his widow Ana Mary Arias told CBS4's Peter D'Oench that she did not blame the other officer who shot her husband, saying it was an accident.
In light of his death, CBS4 took a closer look at gun safety and spoke with Kian Kamali, who is the manager of Charlie's Armory and has been a firearms instructor for 10 years.
"I was surprised to hear that an instructor passed away during training," he said. "He should have paid attention to the weapon he was using. Because it had an actual bullet inside it, he should have been more vigilant about the firearm he was checking before any instruction. For the purposes of a disarm, it makes no sense to have a bullet inside of a firearm. We must remember to be vigilant. We can make our mistakes but unfortunately, this mistake cost a life."
He said a bullet-proof vest might have saved the life of Arias but normally they are not worn during such exercises.
"If you are just conducting an exercise where you are doing a technique like the gentleman was doing, I don't think the vest would have been necessary. There should not have been ammunition in the firearm in the first place."
Miami-Dade Police said they had no new information to release.
It is not known when they will receive a report from the Miami-Dade Medical Examiner's office and until then they can not officially release any more details.
