A former police chief for Dalworthington Gardens, TX also spent time teaching concealed handgun license classes for people who wanted to carry concealed weapons and taught other classes as part of an outreach program for the city. Since 1996 he estimates he has taught over 20,000 people, and at least a thousand as part of the outreach program.

Former chief Bill Waybourn was shot by accident during an outreach class in 2013 when he was trying to demonstrate how to clear the gun to his student. He was still employed by the city then, only retiring last September. The gun had “stovepiped”, which is when the bullet does not fully come out of the gun, and then the gun’s slide suddenly moved forward and discharged a live round into Waybourn’s hand as he held the gun. They were at a gun range at the time of the shooting, and not a city facility where classroom sections of the courses were held. Waybourn’s wife notified the department’s deputy chief of the incident and he notified the mayor and City Attorney Jim Jeffrey. Waybourn had surgery on his right hand and his bills were paid for by workers’ compensation. The city council decided that he was acting on behalf of a city-approved program and his bills were paid through workers’ comp.

Since Mr. Waybourn is running for Tarrant County Sheriff, some are questioning the validity and merit of this as a workers’ compensation case. The student in the class when Waybourn was shot said that she thought questions being raised about possible fraud in this case were “an attempted assault” on Waybourn.

The classes he taught educated students about gun safety and proper storage, gun laws, and dispute resolution. The classes could be large or small; this particular class only had one participant. He says the people that take part in the outreach program are businesspeople in the area, residents, or even groups like teachers or the wives of police officers in the city.

The chief had indicated that he was doing his “regular job” at the time of the injury. He said he was unsure if he had directly filed a workers’ compensation claim but did fill out an Employers First Report of Injury or Illness Form, which must be filled out when there is an injury at work.

There was no written agreement between the City Council and Waybourn that stated he was to teach these classes as part of a community program. Jim Jeffrey said it was more of an understanding and the council allowed him to use rooms belonging to the city for the classroom part of the training. The outreach classes were free to participants.

Jeffrey said the issue of whether or not his claim was a worker’ compensation case arose at the time of the injury, but Waybourn’s activities were approved by the city and the workers’ compensation carrier decided Waybourn was eligible for benefits, given the circumstances of his work.