OOPS!

Lodi Police Officer Shot When Child Pulled Trigger On His Gun At Reading Event

LODI (CBS13) — A Lodi Police SWAT officer had a Glock .35 with a flashlight in his thigh holster at a children’s reading event when a boy managed to pull the trigger and shoot the officer.

“It doesn’t have an external safety or anything like that,” said Lt. Sierra Brucia with the department. “The gun functioned how it was supposed to. When the trigger was pulled, the gun went off.”

The officer was showing off the department’s SWAT truck, vest and other gear at a children’s event called Reading Roundup on Aug. 24.

“A small child, witnesses tell us was 6 to 8 years old, was able to walk up to the officer and was able to pull the trigger.”

The bullet hit the officer’s leg. He was taken to the hospital for a minor injury and released.

The department is investigating the shooting to see if protocols or procedures need to be changed to prevent the same thing from happening again.

Officers want to find the child and his parents to piece together what went wrong.

“Hopefully, speaking to the child and the child’s parents to find out how they were able to get access to the officer’s gun, what the child’s intent may have been—we don’t know if it was accidental or unintentional.”

Police say because the gun was in a holster the accomodate the attached flashlight, the trigger was more accessible.

The officer has been on the SWAT team for 5 years. He is back on duty.

Read it here.

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Glock .35?  As in .35 caliber?  Or is it a Glock 35 in .40 caliber?  Of course it could have been a 9mm, which roughly equates to .35 caliber, but that's something different altogether, right?  .  Hey, that's the way it was written.  :)  Yes, I'm nit-picking.  I think that if your job is to inform the public through the professional media, you should take the time and do your research and then get it right.  Or is that too much to ask?

"Showing off" the department's SWAT truck at a reading event?  Not sure how that works?  Perhaps they were reading about how SWAT is there to protect the children from the bad guys?

"The department is investigating the shooting to see if protocols or procedures need to be changed to prevent the same thing from happening again."  That's easy...  Don't allow your officers to use holsters that allow access to the trigger when the weapon is holstered properly.  I'm no expert on all of the holsters available but I can't think of any thigh holsters that allow access to the trigger when the pistol is properly holstered.  It seems like a bad idea to me.

They want to find out what the child's intent was?  Doh!  Curiosity.  What else could it be?  "We don't know if it was accidental or unintentional".  Last time I checked, accidental and unintentional meant the same thing.

Anyway, I'm glad the officer is OK :)  I certainly hope the kid is, too...