Officer hit by bullet fragment in accidental shooting at Port Hueneme police headquarters

A Port Hueneme police sergeant accidentally fired a handgun in the department’s briefing room one evening in February, striking a fellow officer in the face with a bullet fragment from the ricochet.

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

Port Hueneme Police Cmdr. Robert Albertson said via email interview the sergeant “had an accidental discharge with a handgun” into the floor of the briefing room, which “resulted in a police officer being struck in the left cheek with a piece of bullet shrapnel from a ricochet.”

The officer who was hit 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 discharged the weapon is “a very tenured employee,” Albertson said, and has remained on duty during the investigation.

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

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

Firearm 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 department-issued handgun is a Sig Sauer P-320 .40 caliber. Other handguns are also approved for on-duty use, including 9 mm, .40 caliber and .45 caliber models from Beretta, Glock, Smith & Wesson and four other manufacturers.

The department’s firearms policy states that officers should inspect their firearms at the beginning of their shift, to ensure that they are loaded and in proper condition.

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

A clearing barrel is a receptacle into which a gun can be pointed to make sure there isn't a round in the chamber. It's typically filled with sand, ballistic rubber or another substance that will allow a round to fire safely. The clearing barrel at the Port Hueneme Police Department is outdoors, in a parking lot next to the property room roll-up door, the firearms policy states.

Ken Corney, who retired from the Ventura Police Department in 2019 after 10 years as its chief, didn't know the details of the Port Hueneme incident, but said it appears the department is handling its investigation properly.

"I applaud the Port Hueneme Police Department for having transparency with this, and having an outside investigation look into it," Corney said. "The point of this is to prevent it from happening in the future. Is it training, is it process, is it equipment failure? That's what they appear to be doing here, and it's very prudent."

Weapons safety is crucial in any law enforcement agency, Corney said. Officers handle guns every day, and because they do it so often, they can form bad habits or get careless if they're not paying close attention to safety procedures.

For Corney, the Port Hueneme incident brought 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, inside the department's offices.

"You should be taking great care and diligence when you're using or manipulating your weapon for any reason," Corney said. That includes "not putting your finger on the trigger unless you intend to fire the weapon."

Corney said accidental discharges are rare but did happen a few times in his decade leading the Ventura Police Department.

Corney said when he was chief, the department had "bullet traps," or clearing barrels, in various locations, including the briefing room, the locker room and outdoors.

Without knowing the exact circumstances of the incident in Port Hueneme, he couldn't say whether it was appropriate for the officer to be handling a gun in the briefing room, but he said it's possible there could have been a legitimate reason for it.

Ventura County Sheriff's Office has handful of accidental discharges a year

Accidental discharges fall into one of two categories, Corney said: a mechanical issue with the gun or some type of operator error that causes it to fire. The operator error type of discharge is usually called a "negligent discharge" in law enforcement circles though that doesn't mean every incident meets a legal definition of negligence.

There are two basic circumstances in which a gun can be unintentionally fired through operator error: a tactical discharge, in which an officer draws a weapon while in the field but pulls the trigger without intending to; and a non-tactical discharge, in which a weapon is fired unintentionally during cleaning, inspection, loading or any other scenario not involving a police operation. The incident in Port Hueneme appears to have been a non-tactical discharge.

This incident was the first accidental discharge of a weapon by an on-duty Port Hueneme police officer 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 biggest law enforcement agency in the county, with about 750 deputies — there are typically between one and three negligent discharges per year, said Sgt. Monica Smith, a spokesperson for the department. All of those incidents are reviewed by a committee consisting of supervisors with expertise in firearms and training, and that committee can recommend changes to the sheriff in policies, equipment or training.

Firearm safety is included in the 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 at all shooting ranges: treat all guns as if they are loaded; do not point a gun at anything you're not prepared to shoot; keep your finger off the trigger until you're ready to shoot; and know your target, what's behind it and what may appear in front of it.

"In addition to these four safety rules, deputies are instructed to only load and unload firearms on the range, in a designated clearing barrel (our stations have these areas), or if the first two options are not available; use a location that ensures minimal property damage or no risk of injury if a gun were to fire," Smith said via email.

Tony Biasotti is an investigative and watchdog reporter for the Ventura County Star. Reach him at tbiasotti@vcstar.com. This story was made possible by a grant from the Ventura County Community Foundation's Fund to Support Local Journalism.

This article originally appeared on Ventura County Star: Port Hueneme police officer injured in accidental shooting