VA: "Mexican carry" leads to accidental discharge

[seamusTX]

In Danville, Virginia, yesterday, a 73-year-old retired police officer was eating in a restaurant when a handgun that he had tucked in his waistband discharged. The man and two others were injured by bullet splinters.

The story doesn't say what the bullet hit. The floor, I would guess.

Police said the man may be charged after the investigation is complete.

http://www.wric.com/Global/story.asp?S=11024659" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;

I have trouble coming up with a scenario in which a handgun discharges while the wearer is sitting at a table and not fooling around with the weapon.

The guy is lucky he didn't get it in the leg, or worse.

- Jim

[Keith B]

I thought they had renamed that method to 'Plaxico Carry'. Ole Plexilgass is still trying to exlpain that one.

[seamusTX]

I think it was a pocket in his case, and his 15 minutes of fame are long over.

- Jim

[Keith B]

I think it was a pocket in his case, and his 15 minutes of fame are long over.

- Jim

Actually, it wasn't IIRC he had it tucked in the waistband of his sweatpants and as he started up the stairs to a more private area of the club it slid down the leg. When he grabbed the Glock, he got his finger in the trigger guard and it fired.

[ELB]

I have trouble coming up with a scenario in which a handgun discharges while the wearer is sitting at a table and not fooling around with the weapon.

- Jim

Purely speculation -- since in "Mexican Carry" the trigger guard is not covered by any stiff material, leaning against something as you move could theoretically engage the trigger. (I recently read a story on another forum by a guy who was wearing a pistol in a "smart carry" type rig, and did this -- discharging the pistol into his, um, "twig and berries." Ouch. He noted that they picked bullet fragments out of his parts, but all the plumbing still works, altho I think he is missing a "berry." ). I suppose he could have caught it somehow on the corner of the table while moving, or sitting down?

However, my bet is the pistol moved out of position, he took hold of it (carelessly) to slide it back into position, and ...bang.

[seamusTX]

I experimented with this, just out of curiosity. I carried an unloaded Kel-Tec inside my pants at the belt line at home for a month. Nothing that I did caused the trigger to be pulled. I could not pull it even intentionally through the fabric of my pants.

Obviously, it does happen rather often, though.

The problem that I discovered in my experiment is that it's too easy for the weapon to fall out, especially in a La-Z-Boy.

- Jim

[surprise_i'm_armed]

Reading the link, it doesn't give the brand of hangun, so at this
time it can't be confirmed that the man caught a case of "glockleg".
SIA

[seamusTX]

The article said the man had been retired for 20 years. Back in 1989, few police departments had adopted Glocks. My guess would be that he had a double-action revolver.

- Jim

[surprise_i'm_armed]

seamusTX
Well my friend. You make a very large jump in logic there.

Maybe in 1989, when he retired, double action service revolvers were the norm.


Riddle me this Batman: Does that mean he took his service weapon with him, or felt constrained to only
buy the same for his personal carry piece?

In 20 years since retirement, I think there's a pretty good chance that he may have
bought some other kind of gun.

I'm just sayin.....

SIA

[seamusTX]

Some police officers have to supply their own sidearm. This is especially the case in small towns.

Maybe in the case of officers retiring after a long career, they are allowed to keep their sidearm even if it was issued by the force. After 20 or 30 years of being carried every day, you could say the force got its money's worth.

Or he may have bought a personal sidearm similar to his duty weapon so that he didn't have potential problems switching between them.

I'm just speculating.

- Jim

[surprise_i'm_armed]

seamusTX
I'm putting my money on glockleg, cause I'm just made that way!

That's my default mode of speculation on this one.

SIA

[ELB]

Ok, I got more curious about this, and went Googling. Additional items not contained in the first report:

Many accounts say the firearm discharged after Lt (ret) Martin stood up. This tends to support fKeith B's "Plaxico Burgess" theory proposed above, where the gun slips from the waistband down the pants leg, Martin grabs for it, and boom.

It was indeed the floor that the bullet struck (first), and some of the wounded may have been hit by pieces of tile as well as bullet fragments. Some accounts say Martin was wounded in the leg, implying the bullet went thru his leg first, but not clear if this is really the case.

If you want to see a picture of the fatally injured piece of tile, here is a video, but warning: the audio track is excruciating as the anchor and the report try to turn a 30 second story into 6 or 7 minutes of airtime. gah.
http://danvillecitynews.com/" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;
This looks like a scrolling news item, so if you want to see it, better go quick before it scrolls off the page.

Interesting quote from Newspusher.com
http://www.newspusher.com/EN/post/12518 ... ccf428ba67" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;
AT FIRST EMPLOYEES THOUGHT SOMEONE DROPPED A TRAY FULL OF DISHES WHEN THE GUN DISCHARGED.
THEN THEY NOTICED A DOCTOR TREATING THE INJURED.
WYATT says: "The employees went out to see if something had turned over. It seemed relatively calm, so everybody evidently figured out what had happened relatively quickly."
Also has video of an apparently alert woman being wheeled out on a gurney.

Latest report I found says five, not three, injured -- somebody went to the hospital by himself.
http://www2.godanriver.com/gdr/news/loc ... ing/13610/" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;

No word on type or make of gun. Several stories showed pix of (different) snubbies, but I am sure those were stock photos.

[Excaliber]

seamusTX
Well my friend. You make a very large jump in logic there.

Maybe in 1989, when he retired, double action service revolvers were the norm.


Riddle me this Batman: Does that mean he took his service weapon with him, or felt constrained to only
buy the same for his personal carry piece?

In 20 years since retirement, I think there's a pretty good chance that he may have
bought some other kind of gun.

I'm just sayin.....

SIA

Retired officers often purchase guns of a type other than what they carried for duty, and unfortunately not all take the trouble to become proficient with them. In Connecticut I was at at a LEOSA qualification shoot where I was seriously concerned about the safety practices of some of the advanced age retirees around me. The range officers had to make some pretty stern interventions with folks who clearly hadn't a clue how their small, light, newfangled autos worked. This is a recipe for disaster, regardless of whether one has an LEO background or not.

[Liberty]

Can we still call it glockleg if it turns out to be a revolver? Sorta like using the saying "Going Postal" when an employee flips out..