Officer shot in leg after his gun went off spontaneously, Winnipeg police say

[grampajack]

Officer shot in leg after his gun went off spontaneously, Winnipeg police say

http://www.cbc.ca/beta/news/canada/manitoba/officer-bullet-glock-1.4252937

I hate to question the story of the officers involved, but this doesn't pass the sniff test. Does anyone have any theories as to how such a thing could even be possible?

 

[cslinger]

Either faulty/old leather holster or he holstered with something stuck in there and when he moved the foreign item (shirt/whatever) pulled the trigger.

Or he was dorking around with the gun and shot himself which nobody is gonna admit to.

Not saying that a Glock 35 can 100% not fire on its own but it would be a lottery ticket buying event since the striker isn't fully tensioned and should have a fairly low probability of firing a round even if it did drop. Again not saying it CAN'T EVER happen but I would be surprised if it was strictly the fault of the gun/ammo.

 

[VoodooMountain]

I cannot imagine the chain of events needed to set the glock off without the trigger and trigger safety being pulled.

The glock is dao and pulling the trigger both cocks and releases the trigger

 

[boom boom]

I cannot imagine the chain of events needed to set the glock off without the trigger and trigger safety being pulled.

The glock is dao and pulling the trigger both cocks and releases the trigger

Something caught in the trigger guard when holstering or reholstering would do it. Moral, don't have a crappy holster.

 

[climbnjump]

Either faulty/old leather holster or he holstered with something stuck in there and when he moved the foreign item (shirt/whatever) pulled the trigger.

Yeah, it didn't "spontaneously" go off, the trigger was pulled somehow. One of you Glock experts can correct me if I'm wrong, but I don't think the striker is pulled back w/o the trigger being pulled.

Isn't the G35 a long slide model? I wonder if he was using a holster made for a shorter slide model. That would seem a strange thing to do, but...

 

[Kleanbore]

,,,,he holstered with something stuck in there and when he moved the foreign item (shirt/whatever) pulled the trigger.

Probably the case. That has happened.

 

[RPRNY]

"The officer, who had his gun in his holster, opened the car door with one hand while holding his lunch with the other.

As the officer sat down, the gun went off, shooting him in the lower leg."

The action of sitting down, probably "plopping down", caused a foreign object of some description (seat belt buckle receiver?) to push back the trigger. It seems unlikely that he was dorking around with his firearm if only because of the location but holster issues and lack of retention seem the likely culprits based on the little information we have from the news report.

 

[Kendal Black]

If the Glock was in proper working order, and the incident happened just as reported, then we can say that something impinged upon the face of the trigger. Something was in the holster in addition to the gun, or (unlikely) the holster broke down internally in some way that pressed the trigger face. Is it another jacket drawstring incident?

As the AD reportedly happened as the officer seated himself in a car, the angle of force might have been against the butt of the pistol, moving the gun downward in the holster, in which case the pistol was not fully seated in there. Perhaps it was not seated due to an obstruction.

Other scenarios are possible, an upward pull from a drawstring for example, but in any case the force applied to the pistol had to be in a narrow range of possible angles, essentially on its longitudinal axis.

 

[stchman]

While it seems HIGHLY unlikely, I guess there is a 0.000001% chance it could occur. My guess is that a foreign object got caught in the holster as well and when the officer sat down, the foreign object pulled the trigger, but this has already been said.

 

[Creaky_Old_Cop]

SOMETHING engaged the trigger, disengaged the trigger safety toggle, and SOMETHING pressed the trigger all the way back. What "something" may have been is only open to speculation at this point. Foreign object could even be his damned finger. An awful lot of things have to happen in the right order, at the right(wrong) time to make the BOOM.

What also puzzles me is that if he was in the act of sitting down, or just have SAT down...how in the hell would the gun hit him in the leg and hit several arteries? Based on sitting body position, he should have caught MAYBE a graze or a scorch to the cheek of his ass.

Did they even mention whether or not he was in uniform? Was in he plain clothes? Was he carrying IWB, or AIWB? Was he in a thigh holster set up (it mentioned he was the Winnipeg version of SWAT and he might have been dressed for that).

What I see as most likely....and this is no diss to my brothers up north in general...is that he was dicking with his gun and it went BOOM and he may have not been totally forthcoming with the facts, or the department is glossing over the event.

There is just too little info to speculate other than...."Damn, there's something missing here".

 

[Kendal Black]

There is just too little info to speculate other than...."Damn, there's something missing here".

The story says the department is investigating. Whether we will ever hear anything further, that could amount to useful information...well, I'll give that a maybe.

 

[bnolsen]

Interesting article, will be nice if any followupa get posted back here. Don't officers typically carry retension holsters? That would put to bed any speculation on the pistol being fully holstered or not.

 

[Walkalong]

We don't do news stories, and second guessing what happened is pointless.