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Ballistic bad ass ShootingTheBull410 writes: “USA Today says ‘Cincinnati police said in a news release that Officer Darryl Jouett of the Erlanger (Ky.) Police Department was in an elevator when he tried to adjust the weapon in his holster and shot himself in the stomach.’ Oh, really? That’s not exactly what it looks like in the security camera video of the incident.” [Click here to watch.] Remember, never try to catch a dropped gun. A lesson Officer Jouett learned the hard way.

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111 COMMENTS

  2. Dropped? More like “misjuggled while dicking about with”.

    It’s like your weenie, bud. Don’t play with it in public.

  3. Highly trained and qualified.
    Same with chief “Glock pillow.”

    I guess if you get away with being stupid long enough you start to think you’re awesome.

      • Well your version is certainly more plausible.
        I’ve never seen an elevator door built heavy enough to stop a bullet.

      • Agreed. It didn’t ricochet; only the casing bounced off the door. The round went exactly where he was pointing it whilst dicking around like a foolish showoff. How uncomfortable must he have been to need such a dramatic readjustment?!

        I’ve had, and carried a weapon for YEARS…and never once had to “readjust” something so uncomfortable it caused me to pull the effin’ trigger!

        • If a woman can torture her feet in high heel shoes just to look good, I can take a gun poking me in the hip. If I ever have to move my gun around, it stays in the holster. That is why I opt for an inside waistband clip on.

  6. I love how his wife goes back for the donuts. He’s a cop, he’ll need them to rebuild his strength.

    • This may not have been his wife. She was more interested in calling the police (from the inside of an elevator!) and picking her stuff up than in his well being. Then she darts away from the trouble… If this was his wife, probably not for long… Anyway, these morons deserve each other.

      • Everything she did was reasonable under the circumstances – stepping out for a signal to call for assistance, recovering their possessions (most importantly the donuts 😉 ) and the spent casing in an elevator that apparently could not be immediately disabled, and stepping out with her husband once clear of the elevator. She was also likely responding to instructions from her sergeant/husband during the course of the event.

        Good on her for keeping her cool.

    • “I love how his wife goes back for the donuts. He’s a cop, he’ll need them to rebuild his strength.”

      “Leave the gun. Take the cannoli.”

  8. Hey, Farago: I noticed that right under the USA Today story are links for the GA Police Chief incident from New Year’s Day that I’ve emailed you about, as well as some incident involving an IN Police Chief. I continue to anxiously await your review of the GA incident.

    • Yes I sent in the 911 tape. Erie is how I describe his demeanor ofter the fact.
      I called it the passively constructed negligent discharge of the year.
      “I was moving it and it went off”

  9. Dummy. If you pull out and play with your junk…it might go off. Especially when you keep your finger on the trigger. Thats a painful and humiliating lesson.

  10. Cop with box a of donuts? If he was safely sitting at Holtman’s Donut Shop this wouldn’t have happened.

  12. Playing around with his firearm, trying too show off and look bad. Now he has a GSW to the stomach. Maybe remove his firearm and put him behind a desk or something. The life they may be saving is his own.

  13. What a fool.

    He took out his firearm for no obvious reason and then proceeded to try and put it back in his pocket or holster or whatever with one hand.

    Play stupid games, win stupid prizes.

    And once again it proves my point: keep your handgun in its properly fitting holster (which covers the trigger) unless there is an imminent threat to someone’s life and these types of events will not happen.

    • He was likely showing off his new toy in front of his woman, but got bit…

      My father said it best “Girls aren’t as impressed with it as you think they are…”

      But, he was talking about something else… Ah, early 20’s, good times.

  14. In the past week we have this, an Indiana chief of police shot himself in a gun shop. A deputy in NJ squeezed a round at an officer’s wake. A chief in Ga shot his wife in a ND.

    • I believe we are seeing the groundwork being laid for a new defense against the much publicized police brutality of late being: “We’re not mean/bigoted/roid-raging/paranoid. We’re just really, really, really stupid.”

    • While many have tried to point out that TTAG is anti-cop I think this goes to show TTAG is just anti-stupid cop.

      • The news reporter’s logic is also flawed. If Glock has 65% of the police market then obviously there are going to be more accidental/negligent discharges with Glocks than other types of pistols because more officers are carrying Glocks. Is a Type 94 Nambu Pistol safer than a Glock because fewer police officers have shot themselves with them?

        • News reporters are trained NOT to have any logic. That would lead to logical conclusions based on actual facts, not feelings or guesses. Can’t have any of that going on.

      • Looks like he holstered the gun with a string from jacket caught on the trigger.
        Tugged on jacket- blam!

        Same as the other chief in another gun store, as I recall.

        We need a new law regulating jackets with side strings…

        • Ha! Funny you should mention that. When I went through the police academy this time last year, we had firearms training week out in the cold rain quite a bit. They told us whatever rain jacket you wear, make sure it has no drawstrings, especially the ones with those little, spring loaded, plastic locks. They threatened to cut them off if they saw them. Apparently, they had problems with those things getting caught in the trigger guards before as people draw and punch out. I kept my rain jacket tucked into my pants, under the duty belt, so there wouldn’t be a problem.

  15. Highly trained professional… civilians have no business owning guns..
    OR
    Leave it to the professionals, they are the only ones specially trained to handle firearms.
    OR
    Making sacrifices every day for your protection, every policeman is a hero, and deserves the elite status of exceptionalism .

    • Or “Unless you’ve worn the uniform, you don’t know what you are talking about.”

      Tha’ts one of my favorites (especially considering the number of times the one that comment is aimed at HAS ‘worn the uniform’).

    • The comment about trained professionals like police and military only being qualified to handle firearms is bs i am retired army and the only thing i see besides some peoples ill informed opinions is this point that negligent discharges happen when people get stupid with firearms and violate some rules and these happen to highly trained professionals as well for the same reason. Never pull your pistol unless you intend to use it(no showing off). There are several incidents well dovumented in the media where firearms professonals(a firearms instructer and a PA state patrolman where either accidently shot or shot somebody in what were ruled as accidental and negligent discharges). So the comment about trained professionals being the only ones who should have firearms because civilians shouldn’t is ill informed.

      • “Never pull your pistol unless you intend to use it” is the rule in almost every department, isn’t it?

        In his defense, 25 years on the force, that sidearm is going to feel like a part of him–I’d bet he’s habituated to it. Sure, he has to re-qualify as a shooter, but I wonder how often they get a serious safety refresher?

    • Sure, why not. It might also give them enough time to figure out that they’re shooting at a kid with a plastic gun before they pull the trigger, so it’s a win-win all around.

  18. Given his careless demeanor with a firearm, I bet this guy has been unsafe for a long time. Glad he didn’t hurt the lady in the elevator. Looks like the donuts made it through ok as well.

    • “Looks like the donuts made it through ok as well.”

      A fellow cop was concerned about the doughnuts…

      This is my surprised face…

      🙂 🙂

      (Hey, no way could I pass that up. Waiting with baited breath for Ralph’s snark.)

      • 🙂
        No need to worry about Ralph’s “snark”.

        BTW, are you making your comments while having your morning coffee and donut?

        I’m enjoying my third mug, but no donut…not after all the Christmas indulgence.

    • According to the Cincinnati Enquirer the lady was likely his wife: “…on his way back from dinner with his wife…” and her demeanor tends to support that conclusion.

      Despite all the second guessing critics in this thread of comments, the ‘lady’ appeared to keep her cool and do all the right things during the course of her husbands self inflicted injury. He was probably also guiding her with instructions. I’d say they both responded about as well as could be expected under the circumstances.

      A much better outcome here than as with some who would simply melt on the spot and be useless.

  19. How is that all of these cops end up shooting themselves? If anybody should be competent in firearm handling it should be cops.

    • Well, that’s the theory.
      But as Yogi Berra said, “In theory there is no difference between theory and practice; in practice there is.”

  20. My goodness. What a juggle. Waving it all over the place, trying to put it in his coat pocket and everywhere else. Didn’t look like it dropped it. Maybe it snagged on his coat zipper? A better question is why is he taking it out now? If you are going to adjust your holster,etc, need to put the other things down and keep focused.

    • Don’t be silly, of course he dropped it. If you shot yourself in the belly, I bet you’d drop whatever you were holding, too!

  21. Yes, brains and responsibility first. Plus the wisdom to use a Thumb safety! Also see; SA/DA or P7. In the four police shootings above, how many involve the “safe action”

    • The missing safety in this case was between his ears. He muzzled himself trying to re-holster a gun that he had zero business un-holstering in the first place. And then he pulled the trigger.

  22. Did anybody get a tox screen on him? He’s fumbling with his gun like he had too much wine with his dinner….

  23. Once again I wonder if the article matches the video because what I keep seeing, never gets reported. In the John Crawford video for example, many people were saying that he raised the BB gun up above waist high right before he was shot. Others even said he pointed it at the police.
    In this case, it is obvious what he is doing. He was moving the gun from his holster to his coat pocket. His off hand was occupied so he was like a dog chasing his tail trying to catch that pocket. Looks like good trigger discipline at first but his concentration was on the woman whom he was engaged in conversation.
    After several failed attempts at pocketing the pistol, I believe he tried to grasp his coat tail. That is when one of his fingers pressed the trigger. It may have been his middle finger.
    He did not drop and then try to catch the gun as the article falsely proclaims.
    The lessons here are many, besides don’t try to catch a dropped gun.
    Do not manipulate a gun one handed when two are required.
    Avoid distractions when handling a firearm.
    Do not use your hand for any other reason when it is 100% dedicated by the presence of a firearm. In other words, with a gun in your hand, that hand no longer exists for any other purpose.
    Do not pocket a pistol without a safety, and/or a pocket holster. And place the pistol in the pocket holster then put them in the pocket together.

    This guy is a total ass-clown know-it-all cop who is lucky he didn’t shoot his femoral or the lady.

    • Reports said it was a Glock.
      So how does that trigger safety thingy work again?
      And to all you XD guys, same thing would have happened with a grip safety. He didn’t drop it. He was gripping it and he pulled the trigger.
      Don’t be like an anti and blame the gun for human error.

      • You have to admit that this kind of thing would have been prevented by a manual safety, however.

        I mean, sure, it would also have been prevented by him not fumbling around in the first place. But, well, people are idiots (even the best are still idiots on occasion), so tools have to be designed accordingly in recognition of that reality.

  25. OW!! MY EARS!!

    At least he kept the gun pointed in a safe direction.

    Oh wait, … there’s no such thing in an elevator.

        • Well, some people carry in different places on their person for different situations. I assume he was preparing to be driving so he did not want it at 4 o’clock. Maybe he had a pocket holster. I don’t blame him for putting it where he felt he needed to carry it but he went about it all wrong.
          That is why my IWB holster has a strong clip and does not have belt loops where I would need to remove my belt to move to another position. I just un-clip the holster (gun still in it) and clip it in the appendix position for driving. I don’t do this until I am in my car and I have both hands available.

  26. The comments under the news story are epic. “Another black man shot by the police?!!”

  29. yeah, i’d like to know more about that gun–it looks like it doesn’t “go off” until he gets into his juggling routine, but that suggests a pretty light trigger. i guess this is the point of backstrap safeties?

    musta been loud in the elevator!

  30. His mistake, apparently, was that he put his finger onto the trigger [because we all know guns don’t just take it into their non-existent heads to “go off”] while fumbling around with the gun and the “donuts” and trying to put the gun in various places on his person around the coat. One would think a 25 year veteran PO would know better than that, or else he had become carelessly familiar with the gun and thereby carelessly casual to the point of failure. He should have handed the “donuts” to the lady (and it appears there was some other object in his other hand, too), then he would have had both hands free to re-position the gun around the coat. I won’t call him an unkind name, but he KNEW better whether he adverted to it or not. Better yet, maybe he should not have messed with the gun at all while in the Elevator and his left hand was encumbered by other objects. DOH!
    Yes, the lady gets extra credit for remaining calm and doing what needed to be done!

  33. If a highly trained, highly competent, highly careful, highly aware, highly skilled, highly trustworthy policeman can make a mistake like this, how can we allow the average moron on the street to walk around with a gun on their person?

  34. BTW, the cop discharged a known/accepted/heralded 40 calibre round THAT DID NOT PENETRATE THE ELEVATOR DOOR FROM LESS THAN 3 FEET, then hit the officer causing non-lethal injury.

    oh, and he was not blown out of his shoes, or bounced off the back wall of the elevator.

    any questions about depending on a one-shot-stop?

    • It seems pretty clear there was no ricochet, he had the gun pointed directly at his abdomen when it “went off” and he is clutching that same part of his abdomen after the shot.

    • Yup. Its not entirely clear he dropped it or juggled it before it went off. It looks like he snagged it on something, trying to get into his pocket, and then looking down to see what the problem is, pulling away from his coat- and it goes off. At that point after it discharges, he kind of juggles and drops it- like weak wristing to the point of losing grip.

      That looks like a g27, “baby glock”, so there’s only two finger width, or just three with the grip extender it looks like is added on, depending on hand size. Pretty snappy in .40 even with a firm grip.

      No surprise he dropped it to grab his gut, for it appears he shot himself it in the centerline, above navel, angled in, and thats potentially a serious wound, maybe hit a kidney. That would put you to your knees, for sure.

      Actually, I give him credit for being a tough guy, to keep his head, and get weapon back in hand before leaving the elevator.

  35. Question for those feeling the need to be involved in a DGU:
    You’re on the other side of the door, hear a pop, the door slides open and you behold a man on his knees, clutching his stomach, and a woman reaching for the gun on the floor…
    What do you do?

  37. So… does this count as a police shooting of a black man? Have the rioters protesters been notified of the need to loot demonstrate?

  38. It looks to me like he did lose grip on the gun and it started to fall. This is a good teaching point, and one possibility I had considered in the case of the 2 year old accidentally pulling the trigger and shooting his mother.

    In this case his natural reaction was to “catch” the falling object. In the case of pistols without manual safety levers one truly needs to suppress this instinctive reaction to catch the pistol. We hear about this all too often, during the “catch” one of the fingers ends up in the trigger guard, and the falling weapon does the rest. I imagine had he just let it fall to the floor, yes he feels stupid, but he has a chance to not be shot at least.

    Back to the 2 year old. My first thought when I heard about the shooting is that perhaps it was another case of “instinct” kicking in and in a “holy crap my kid has my pistol” moment the mother grabbed for the pistol and in this assisted in the trigger being pulled. Reading the latest reports it doesn’t sound like this was the actual scenario, but it could have just as easily been the case.

    Calmness and purposefulness will win the day.

    As with all teaching moments it gives us the opportunity to think about how we might handle the situation were we to suddenly find ourselves there.

    • To his credit, I’ll bet he never does that again.

      He’s done it twice already. What makes you think he’s learned his lesson when he didn’t learn it after the first time?

  45. Well it looks to me as if he was trying to accidentally on purpose shoot his wife. But instead got caught in his own web.

  46. the guns that been shooting folks are all glocks they have no external thumb safety so if you touch the trigger by accident or get it hung up its 5.5 lbs just a woosh and a breeze and they go bang like they were meant to . go back in the day when police issue was a md 66 S&W 357 6 shot revolver the double action pull was about 12 lbs. the solution to this is the new york 2 12 lb trigger spring it stopped alot of idiots that put there fingers on the triggers it should have been law all police that use a glock have this installed 65% of the police use glocks? is this because glocks are such a fine weapon or is it because 65% of the police wouldnt know a fine weapon if they had one? ill let you think about that

  47. if i am required by law to wear a seat belt for my safety all police guns should be required to have a 12 lb trigger pull and a manual thumb safety or go back to revolvers.for there safety

  49. I say after that incident, he should get the Barney Fife treatment: an empty .38 revolver in his holster and one bullet to keep in his shirt pocket.

  50. The issue here is lack of IQ.
    Blacks shouldn’t be allowed to own guns. It’s bad for their health and anyone in a 100 yard radius.

  51. It was fun talking about this one at the Daily Mail until they closed the comments. Two things I noticed…

    1) The assumption of how highly trained police are in using their guns here in the US. They don’t get that I fire more rounds in a single trip to the range than most cops do all year.

    2) There are a lot of Brits who miss owning guns. I’m thinking too many were starting to come out with positive thoughts on gun ownership, so they decided it was time to close the comments.

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