Police identify Vermillion Co. deputy, who they say accidentally shot a South Vermillion student

VERMILLION COUNTY, Ind. (WTHI) – An investigation is underway after an officer accidentally fired a gun and hit a student at South Vermillion High School.

According to police, the shooting happened just after 9:30 Thursday morning.

There was a class teaching students how to be officers. Participants in the classroom were doing a drill about a scenario with a so-called “bad guy.”.

Eight to ten students were in the class.

Indiana State Police identified the deputy as Tim DisPennett, a 19-year veteran with the Vermillion County Sheriff’s Office.

Police say a DisPennett accidentally fired his service weapon and hit a student. The student went to a Terre Haute hospital with non-life-threatening injuries.

“We will be talking to every student that was inside of the classroom. We will also be speaking with the deputy that was instructing the class and we have crime scene investigators that will be going through the classroom taking all the evidence,” Sgt. Matt Ames from Indiana State Police said. 

The school principal notified his parents with the following letter:

“This morning at South Vermillion High School, there was an isolated incident in one of our vocational classrooms. The incident was an accidental discharge of a firearm by a law enforcement officer during a drill. One student was injured without life-threatening injuries and has been taken to the hospital. Only SVHS is currently on lockdown, due to the abundance of emergency personnel in the building.”