MFPD recalls sidearms after accidental gun discharge at school
Marble Falls High School Resource Officer Hunter Gally was airlifted to an Austin hospital on Sept. 20 after his gun accidentally discharged in its holster, sending a bullet into his leg. Courtesy photo
The Marble Falls Police Department has recalled several SIG Sauer P320 sidearms after one of the weapons discharged while still in its holster, sending a bullet into the leg of a school resource officer on Sept. 20.
According to an MFPD media release issued Tuesday, Sept. 24, Marble Falls High School Resource Officer Hunter Gally was standing beside his patrol vehicle in the school parking lot, preparing to work security for the Mustangs’ homecoming football game, when his duty pistol, a SIG Sauer P320, “inadvertently discharged” while still in its holster.
“The officer was not manipulating the weapon in any way when it discharged inside the holster,” the media release said.
A bullet from the gun lodged in Gally’s thigh. He quickly received medical attention from Marble Falls Area Volunteer Fire Department Capt. Thomas Jacobs, who happened to be nearby. Gally was airlifted to Dell Seton Hospital in Austin, where he was treated for his injury. He has been released from the hospital and is currently recovering.
Gally also was reportedly aided by at least one student from Brackenridge High School, the team facing Marble Falls in that night’s game.
“Yes, there were students that helped,” MFPD Capt. Jimmy Cole told DailyTrib.com. “We just don’t know to what extent.”
In Gally’s absence from his SRO job, other MFPD officers will patrol the high school campus.
“We are still continuing to investigate what happened,” Cole said, “but our officers are our No. 1 priority.”
Officers were given different model pistols to replace their SIG Sauer P320 duty pistols, Cole said. That gun is connected to similar instances nationwide of “catastrophic failure” or accidental firings while still holstered.
Media outlets have published numerous instances of P320 malfunctions:
- A 2021 investigation by WCVB5 in Boston found 36 reports in the United States of the P320 firing without a trigger pull between 2016 and 2021.
- A 2023 investigation by The Trace reported more than 100 people across the country claimed their P320 pistols had fired without a trigger pull between 2016 and 2013. In those incidents, 80 people were wounded.
5 thoughts on “MFPD recalls sidearms after accidental gun discharge at school”
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I have owned more guns than I can recall and always knew that you never carry a gun with a live round in the chamber unless you were actively shooting the dang thing. Surely the officer must have been trained on that. And the State wants teachers to carry! I don’t think that is very smart either.
Your position on empty chamber carry is not supported by any competent professional or trainer.
Yeah…no. I was a cop, if it was “seated inside the holster” there’s no way it goes off on it’s own. Either it wasn’t seated all the way and he was messing with it, or it wasn’t in the holster at all…or MFISD is the only law enforcement agency I know of that doesn’t use a holster that covers the entire trigger when the weapon is holstered (which raises all sorts of other questions). Sorry for the guy, but ‘it just went off by itself’ doesn’t happen.
I am a 43 year veteran of law enforcement as well as a trained firearms instructor. Anyone with legitimate common sense knows that a firearm is a mechanical device that if a component fails, an accident can happen, just like brake failure on an automobile. I surmise that a spring in the trigger mechanism broke which caused the firearm to discharge. The question I would have is when was the last time the weapon was inspected by a certified armor?
And the question I have, is it normal to carry with one already in the chamber?