Off-Duty Police Officer Fired Gun For No Good Reason: DA

Orville Kitson, a Mount Vernon Police Officer, pleaded guilty Friday to the crime of Prohibited Use of Weapons, a misdemeanor. Kitson surrendered himself to the DA’s Office Friday morning and was arraigned in Mount Vernon City Court.

He was sentenced to a one-year conditional discharge.

The charge stems from an incident at around 4 a.m. June 12, 2016, when Kitson fired his police service weapon on a residential street in the area of 455 South Third Ave. in Mount Vernon.

Kitson was off-duty when he fired two .45 caliber rounds from his police service weapon, a semi-automatic Glock-21 pistol. The defendant’s firing of his service weapon that morning was not necessary, was not in self-defense, and was not in the discharge of an official duty, said Westchester County District Attorney Anthony A. Scarpino, Jr..

No one was injured.

The case was prosecuted by ADA Brian F. Fitzgerald, Deputy Bureau Chief of the Westchester County District Attorney’s Public Integrity Bureau.

PHOTO: Orville Kitson/ Westchester DA's Office