Assistant DA finds out what can go wrong when admiring a colleague's gun
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A prosecutor in Texas got a lesson in weapons safety on Monday while admiring what he believed to be an unloaded gun.
First Assistant District Attorney Michael Jarrett aimed the gun at an office window at the McLennan County courthouse complex and pulled the trigger, News Channel 25 and the Waco Tribune report. The gun fired and the bullet shattered a window, striking a brick wall at the county jail outside.
Jarrett tells the Waco Tribune it was “just an unfortunate accident.”
Jarrett says he asked to see his colleague’s new Glock pistol, and asked whether it was loaded when he was examining the gun. He was assured it was not loaded, Jarrett tells the newspaper. He pulled back the slide to double check, and didn’t see the bullet slide into the chamber. At that point, he aimed at the window and pulled the trigger.
Jarrett says there were no injuries because he was careful to point the pistol at the window and brick wall, though he believed the gun was unloaded. “I was being extremely safe,” he says.
Jarrett and his colleague are both licensed to carry concealed weapons and have completed certification courses.
District Attorney Abel Reyna says he will deal with the incident “by disciplinary action or by implementation of policy, or both,” according to the Waco Tribune account. He says his prosecutors will remain armed, however, after the slayings of two prosecutors in Kaufman County, Texas.
