Police: Hug Triggers Officer's Gun, Kills Woman

[HALO141]

103. Actually...

Most departments mandate a Glock type fire control system because it reduces the statistical probability of an accidental discharge. Accidental discharges result in law suits and cost departments (and the cities) money. Glock was very successful marketing it's handgun by demonstrating a significant reduction in AD's among the departments that had adopted it. The AD's were a result of officers manipulating the controls (safety levers/de-cocking levers) with their booger hooks on the bang switch.

How do we know they had their fingers on the trigger? Because (with a very few notable exceptions) all modern pistols have a mechanical block in the slide that prevents the firing pin or striker from moving forward enough to contact the primer. Pressing the trigger first moves the pin block out of the way then releases the hammer or striker. Without the trigger pressed to the rear, the weapon will not discharge even if the hammer or striker is released due to a malfunction. The odds of two devices in the same weapon malfunctioning at the same time are astronomical.

All that being said... There are trigger modifications the people have made to their Glocks, ostensibly to improve accuracy, that result in a fire control system that is much more prone to failure. I know of one individual who made such changes to his Glock, against all knowledgeable advise, who ended up poking a hole through his own leg.

However
It's being reported that the weapon in this case was a S&W. While S&W has produced several models of pistols their most recent is the M&P which is currently enjoying a high degree of popularity. It is striker-fired, like a Glock, and its fire control mechanism is very much like that of a Glock. The M&P trigger (like that of the Glock) is designed in such a way that the mechanism CAN NOT move to the rear without something roughly the size of a finger pushing it. IOW, the trigger cannot be moved as a result of the pistol being struck or dropped.

All this just adds to the irregularities in the story as it's being reported. As others have observed, IWB holsters hold the pistol with the muzzle pointed down. When striking a hard surface, such as a concrete floor, bullets typically fragment and the spawl will travel out, not back along the original trajectory. Even if we are to assume that the muzzle was (somehow) pointed to the rear, I'm at a lost to even speculate how a "hug" could have brought the victim's chest in line with it. What is she, three and a half feet tall?

The only thing I'm at all sure of is that what little information we do have is not reliable.