Police Officer Accidentally Shoots Self In Leg During Training On Cape: Patch PM

HARWICH, MA — It's Wednesday, Nov. 17. Here's what you should know this afternoon:

• A man who appeared intoxicated will face charges after being accused of urinating on a fellow passenger while riding a Massachusetts Bay Transportation Authority bus on Monday night.
• A bullet was found on a Bourne school bus full of elementary school students Tuesday.
• One Cape Cod town got rid of its plastic water bottle ban before it even got enacted.

Scroll down for more on those and other stories Patch has been covering in Massachusetts today.

Today's Top Story

A police officer on Cape Cod accidentally shot himself in the leg during gun training Wednesday morning, according to Harwich police.

Police said the shooting happened around 10:30 a.m. at the firing range on Depot Road. Officers from several towns were participating in the Municipal Police Training Committee's Bridge Academy program. One of the officers accidentally fired his gun during one of the drills and shot himself in the right leg, police said.

Read the full story.

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Wednesday's Other Top Stories

Man accused of peeing on fellow bus passenger: A man who appeared intoxicated will face charges after being accused of urinating on a fellow passenger while riding a Massachusetts Bay Transportation Authority bus on Monday night, police said. At around 9:55 p.m. Monday, MBTA officers responded to a radio call for a male who urinated on another passenger in the area of 70 Massachusetts Ave. in Cambridge, police said. Officers located the victim, an adult male, who said while the bus was traveling on Massachusetts Avenue, he was "alerted to a stream of liquid running by his feet and other passengers looking at him with their 'eyes wide open,'" police said.

Danvers "has been traumatized": Nearly 24 hours after a 90-minute executive session ended with no action taken on a public proposal to place Superintendent Lisa Dana on administrative leave amid accusations of racist behavior and homophobic hazing within the hockey program, the Danvers School Committee Tuesday night released a collective statement allowing that "our community has been traumatized." There is no change in Dana's status as superintendent and the committee reiterated there are certain aspects of the hockey investigation it cannot and will not publicly discuss. "We all agree on the importance of moving forward together and to ensure the district lives our values," the statement said.

Water bottle ban poured out before it starts: Over the last few years, 11 towns on Cape Cod have banned the sale of single-use plastic water bottles, including Sandwich. But on Monday, town meeting voters got rid of the ban before it even got enacted. Sandwich's plastic water bottle ban was scheduled to begin at the start of 2022. This is no longer happening because of the passage of a special town meeting article proposed via a citizen's petition filed by Kathy Barrett. The article passed, with 169 residents supporting it and another 131 voting to keep the ban.

Bullet found on school bus: A bullet was found on a Bourne school bus full of elementary school students Tuesday, according to Superintendent Kerrie Anne Quinlan-Zhou. Shortly before 9 a.m., a small group of Bournedale Elementary School students discovered the .22 caliber round on the floor of a school bus. A student handed it to the bus driver as the bus pulled into the school, and the driver then reported it to administrators, school officials said. The district then immediately called Bourne police to begin their investigation.

Vote tallies go missing in Newton: Voting tallies from six precincts in Newton were found to be missing after the "official results" were posted on Friday, according to the city's website. The results were taken down Saturday due to missing results for all four precincts in Ward 1 and precincts 1 and 2 in Ward 2. According to City Clerk Carol Moore, the main discrepancies were in the hand ballots that are entered after the voting machine have been closed out. These can include provisional ballots accepted by the state, overseas ballots, and those dropped off at City Hall by those who couldn't make it to the polling stations. However, there were not enough mistakes for the outcome to be affected and the election results will not change.

Massachusetts: Tell Someone You're Grateful For Them This Holiday Season

Picture This: Leonid Meteors Peak Over MA

The Leonid meteor shower — known to produce fast, bright meteors as Earth plows through a trail of debris left behind by the comet 55P/Tempel-Tuttle — peaks Wednesday and Thursday mornings just before dawn. It depends on the weather, of course. AccuWeather calls for partly cloudy skies — although Thursday morning shoulder be much warmer than other days this week.

They Said It

"After consulting with the Quincy Health Department and the Massachusetts Department of Public Health, the parents of the other students in the classroom have been notified that their students should remain home and quarantine for the next seven days."

• Janet J. Loftus, the principal of the Beechwood Knoll Elementary School in Quincy. A kindergarten class at the school will quarantine for the next week after seven students and staff members tested positive for COVID-19.

In Case You Missed It

MA preps to give adult COVID boosters: All vaccinated adults in Massachusetts will soon get the opportunity for a booster shot of Pfizer's COVID-19 vaccine. The Food and Drug Administration is expected to grant emergency use authorization for the booster shot as early as Thursday. That would open the door for millions of fully vaccinated Americans 18 and over to get another shot. Pfizer received authorization in September to provide booster shots to people 65 and older and those 18 or older with an elevated risk of serious illness.

By The Numbers

30: The approximate number of miles covered in a police chase early Wednesday morning. The chase started in Hopkinton before the driver was eventually stopped and arrested in Dorchester.

And, Finally Today...

A dog who became a celebrity in her Somerville neighborhood thanks to her eagerness to meet – and get lots of pets from – new friends needs some "extra love" after she was diagnosed with incurable cancer. Sparkle, an 11-year-old Corgi mix, has been a fixture in her front yard for years, lazing on the walkway alongside a sign that introduces her to passersby: "My name is Sparkle. I LOVE to be outside and meet people all year! But I also go inside whenever I want."