The officer stood next to the target as his counterpart, a football field away, took aim and fired. One after another, they took their turns with the rifle.

That account of last fall's unorthodox sniper training at a Roanoke County-owned facility shocked county officials when they learned of it two weeks later.

They said the training was sanctioned by the Roanoke city sheriff over the county's objections.

Now, they want to ban Roanoke law enforcement officers from the Dixie Caverns firing and driving range that the two localities have shared for a decade.

"These facilities have served our departments well, however, the continued disregard to safety and resulting burden of liability resting upon the County, do not allow this program to continue," Roanoke County Assistant Administrator John Chambliss wrote in a March 26 letter to Roanoke City Manager Darlene Burcham.

Chambliss' letter lists several other problems that have come up, but county officials said it was the sniper training that compelled the county to seek to end the agreement.

No one was injured in the voluntary training exercise, which was described as "very irresponsible" by a county official and "utterly ridiculous" by a Marine Corps lieutenant familiar with sniper training methods.

Burcham has since met with Chambliss and Roanoke County police Chief Ray Lavinder. They have agreed to talk about the matter, but the county board of supervisors will ultimately make a decision about whether to terminate the contract.

If it is terminated, the county has proposed buying out the city for about $174,100. The city does not have a firing or driving range of its own, and it's not clear where city officers would train if the agreement is terminated.

After several requests for an interview, Roanoke Sheriff Octavia Johnson said Thursday that she would not answer questions about the issue until city and county leaders had completed talks. "I don't want to hinder a positive outcome to the mediation," she said.

According to Lavinder, Johnson last year asked the county if she could bring in the sniper trainer and open the session to agencies throughout the state. The county objected because of concerns about liability.

But Johnson proceeded with the training, which drew officers from agencies throughout Virginia.

Because Johnson would not answer questions about the training, it is unclear whether anyone from the city sheriff's office participated, or why she brought the trainer to Roanoke. Two Roanoke police officers did participate, department spokeswoman Aisha Johnson said. No Roanoke County police or sheriff's deputies were in the training session, Lavinder said.

County officials didn't know about the training exercise until about two weeks later, when Lavinder got a call from the chief of the Danville Police Department, which had an officer in the training.

"It alarmed me," Danville police Chief Philip Broadfoot said this week. "There is a limit to how far you take realism in your training."

When Roanoke County police looked at recordings from the surveillance cameras at the range, they discovered that three of the four cameras had been disconnected or moved to point toward the sky, Lavinder said. He said he does not know who moved the cameras.

In late October, Lavinder, Roanoke County Sheriff Gerald Holt and Roanoke police Chief Joe Gaskins met with Octavia Johnson and the person on her staff who had supervised the training.

When Lavinder asked the sheriff's department supervisor why he had allowed the training to happen, the supervisor replied that he had seen how well the officers shot and he was not concerned, Lavinder said.

Asked if he would allow it to happen again, the supervisor said that it would depend on how well the participants shot, Lavinder said.

The Danville officer wrote in a statement to Lavinder that although the exercise wasn't mandatory, he participated because he had confidence in his partner's shooting abilities.

"All week I had no problem standing app. 2 1/2 foot away from a target while he took the shot on it," the officer wrote.

The instructor, Paul Castle, runs Sabre Tactical Training Resource and Research, which is based in Nashville, Tenn.

He defended the sniper exercise, saying that the situations a sniper encounters cannot be simulated with a paper target.

"You have to practice for the situation you are going to be in," he said. "We don't want them second-guessing themselves."

He disputed details of the training, saying that the officers shot from 50 yards away, not 100 yards, and that their partners were standing 5 feet from the target, not 2. The exercise took place on the third day of classes, after participants had successfully hit a dime from 50 yards and a quarter from 100 yards, he said.

"I stand by what I did, and I'll do it again in the next class if it is appropriate," Castle said, adding that it is a standard practice in sniper training.

But Lt. Joy Crabaugh, a public information officer for the U.S. Marine Corps training division, said the Marines would never train that way.

"Sending a human being downrange while another human being is firing is the definition of not safe," she said.

The other issues Chambliss referenced in his letter to the city include an instance at the same October training session, when officers were seen firing at a berm that separates two ranges during a lunch break.

County officials were concerned about that incident, because the shots were fired in the direction of a neighboring property.

Unless mediation is successful, the county intends to terminate the agreement with the city effective June 30, according to Chambliss' letter.