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Officer Down: Says Cause Was Hazing by Ammo Rounds–Daily Herald Report

Excerpt and link

A Bartlett police officer targeted by colleagues in an August 2014 hazing ritual is suing the village and several of its leaders, alleging it caused physical and emotional injuries that left him struggling for years with nightmares and flashbacks.

Gzim Selmani of South Elgin also alleges in the federal lawsuit that he was placed on unpaid leave from the department after reporting the hazing last year and has not been allowed back to work. The report led to an investigation that resulted in eight Bartlett Police Department employees serving suspensions……In his lawsuit, Selmani states he was one of two members of the department’s Specialized Emergency Action Response team shot with 30 to 50 rounds of simulated ammunition by a group of colleagues at the end of an August 2014 training exercise.

By Hank Nuwer

Journalist Hank Nuwer tracks hazing deaths in fraternities and schools. Nuwer is the Alaska author of Hazing: Destroying Young Lives; Broken Pledges: The Deadly Rite of Hazing, High School Hazing, Wrongs of Passage and The Hazing Reader. In April of 2024, the Alaska Press Club awarded him first place in the Best Columnist division and Best Humorist, second place.

He has written articles or columns on hazing for the Sunday Times of India, Toronto Globe & Mail, Harper's Magazine, Orlando Sentinel, The Chronicle of Higher Education and the New York Times Sunday Magazine. His current book is Hazing: Destroying Young Lives from Indiana University Press. He is married to Malgorzata Wroblewska Nuwer of Warsaw, Poland and Fairbanks, Alaska. Nuwer is a former columnist for the Greenville (Ohio)Early Bird and former managing editor of the Fairbanks Daily News-Miner in Alaska.
Nuwer was named the Ohio Society of Professional Journalists columnist of the year in 2021 for his “After Darke” column in the Early Bird. He also won third place for the column in 2022 from the Indiana chapter of the Society of Professional Journalists. He and his wife Gosia, recently of Union City, Ind., have owned 20 acres in Alaska for many years. “The move is a sort-of coming home for us,” said Nuwer. As a journalist, he’s written about the Alaskan Iditarod sled-dog race and other Alaska topics. Read his musings in his blog at Real Alaska Daily--http://realalaskadaily.com and in his weekly column "Far from Randolph" in the Winchester Star-Gazette of Randolph County, Indiana.

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