Port Hueneme police officer injured in accidental shooting

Lina Portman4 weeks ago

2 5 minutes read

A Port Hueneme police sergeant accidentally fired a handgun in the department's briefing room one February evening, hitting a colleague in the face with a bullet fragment from the ricochet.

The Port Hueneme Police Department confirmed the incident happened on Feb. 8 at 8:34 p.m. The agency has since hired an outside investigator to write a report on what happened.

Port Hueneme Police Commander. Robert Albertson said in an email interview that the sergeant “had an accidental discharge with a handgun” on the briefing room floor, which “resulted in a police officer being shot to the left cheek by a shrapnel from a ricochet”.

The officer who was shot in the cheek was treated at a hospital emergency room and released later that night.

“The officer’s injury was minor and they returned to work the same weekend,” Albertson said.

The sergeant who accidentally fired the gun is “a very experienced employee,” Albertson said, and he remained on duty during the investigation.

Until the full report is completed, the department will not provide further details, including the names of the officers involved and why the gun may have gone off, Albertson said in an email interview with The Star.

The department reported the workplace accident to the California Occupational Safety and Health Administration. Cal-OSHA opened an investigation into the matter on April 10. Cal-OSHA declined to release any additional information until its investigation is complete.

Gun safety can be a matter of life and death

Like other police departments, Port Hueneme has detailed written policies on how officers should handle firearms. According to those policies, which were provided to the Star by the Port Hueneme Police Department, the standard handgun provided by the department is a .40 caliber Sig Sauer P-320. Other handguns are also approved for duty use, including 9mm, .40-caliber, and .45-caliber models from Beretta, Glock, Smith & Wesson, and four other manufacturers.

The department's firearms policy states that officers must inspect their firearms at the start of their shift, to ensure they are loaded and in good condition.

“Handguns may remain loaded if stored in an appropriate holster,” the policy states. It also states that officers “shall not unnecessarily display or handle a firearm” and “shall not clean, repair, load or discharge a firearm anywhere in the department except where cleaning guns are present “.

A barrel relief is a receptacle into which a firearm can be pointed to ensure that there is no cartridge in the chamber. It is usually filled with sand, ballistic rubber, or another substance that will allow a bullet to fire safely. The Port Hueneme Police Department's clearance barrel is located outside in a parking lot next to the property room's roll-up door, the firearms policy states.

Ken Corney, who retired from the Ventura Police Department in 2019 after 10 years as chief, did not know the details of the Port Hueneme incident but said it appears the department is investigating correctly.

“I applaud the Port Hueneme Police Department for being transparent in this matter and for conducting an outside investigation into this matter,” Corney said. “The goal is to prevent this from happening in the future. Is it training, process, equipment failure? That's what they seem to be doing here, and it's very careful.”

Gun safety is crucial for any law enforcement agency, Corney said. Officers handle firearms every day, and as they so often do, they can develop bad habits or become careless if they don't pay close attention to safety procedures.

For Corney, the Port Hueneme incident brings to mind the death of Rod Lucas, a Fresno County sheriff's sergeant who was accidentally shot in the chest by a colleague in 2016 at the department's offices.

“You must exercise great caution and diligence when using or handling your weapon for any reason,” Corney said. This includes “do not put your finger on the trigger unless you intend to fire the weapon.”

Corney said accidental discharges are rare, but have happened several times during his decade leading the Ventura Police Department.

Corney said that when he was chief, the department had “bullet traps,” or cleaning barrels, in various locations, including in the briefing room, locker rooms and outside.

Without knowing the exact circumstances of the Port Hueneme incident, he couldn't say whether it was appropriate for the officer to handle a gun in the briefing room, but he said it was possible he there is a legitimate reason for this.

Ventura County Sheriff's Office records handful of accidental releases per year

Accidental discharges fall into one of two categories, Corney said: a mechanical problem with the gun or some type of operator error that causes it to fire. The type of discharge due to operator error is generally called “negligent discharge” in law enforcement circles, although this does not mean that every incident meets a legal definition of negligence.

There are two basic circumstances in which a firearm may be fired unintentionally due to operator error: A tactical discharge, in which an officer draws a weapon while in the field but pulls the trigger unintentionally ; and a non-tactical discharge, in which a weapon is fired unintentionally during a clearing, inspection, loading, or other scenario not involving a police operation. The Port Hueneme incident appears to have been a non-tactical discharge.

The incident was the first accidental shooting of a weapon by an on-duty police officer in Port Hueneme in about five years, Albertson said. The department has 22 full-time officers and four reserve officers.

At the Ventura County Sheriff's Office — the county's largest law enforcement agency, with about 750 deputies — there are typically between one and three negligent releases per year, said Sgt. Monica Smith, spokesperson for the ministry. All such incidents are reviewed by a committee made up of supervisors with expertise in firearms and training, and this committee may recommend changes in policies, equipment or training to the sheriff.

Gun safety is included in policies posted online by the Sheriff's Office. They are similar to those of the Port Hueneme Police Department. Deputies are expected to follow four basic rules, common to all shooting ranges: treat all weapons as if they were loaded; don't point a gun at something you're not prepared to shoot; keep your finger off the trigger until you are ready to shoot; and know your target, what is behind them and what may appear in front of them.

Lina Portman

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