Once again, I'm not excusing the fact that he lost his gun and didn't notice, I just don't think people playing the "how could you not notice 2 pounds missing" card have a very good understanding of how much a duty belt weighs.
While that may very well be true, and a valid point, the fact they say the gun was found on a slide, seems to make the idea that the gun just fell out, a little odd. If it fell out onto a hard, likely metal object like a slide, I'd think there'd be no way not to hear it hit. Also, how would it fall out of the holster onto the slide, and not slide off?
As I said earlier, it sounds a lot more like he took it out of the holster while working with the dog so it
wouldn't fall out, intentionally set it on the slide, then forget to pick it up afterward. Maybe the slide thing isn't true, but as it stands, thats the claim, so that's what we have to go on. So, assuming that is accurate, the whole "it fell out, and the slight difference in weight on the heavy duty belt" theory kinda goes out the window REAL fast, and points to him straight out, knowingly removing the gun, setting it down, and leaving it. That is clearly very negligent, and cant really be called and "accident", like the gun falling out into the grass quietly. If this is the case, there is really no excusing it, IMHO. This isn't a set of car keys or your glasses getting left in a park for kids or a criminal to find (druggies seem to have a fondness for doing their buying, selling, and doping in parks, from what I've seen first hand), it's a freakin' loaded handgun. VERY bad juju to leave lying around in a place like that.
But, who knows, as with most things reported in the news that aren't super-high profile, there will likely be no follow up, so we will likely never know for sure. I'm certainly leaning toward my scenario above WAY more than it falling out hough, based on the facts given in the story.