Jacksonville Sheriff's Office
A police officer is arrested after accidentally shooting a man with her own gun during a traffic stop in Florida – and it's all captured on a graphic body camera.
Jason Arrington is completely cooperative in a video just released from the Jacksonville Sheriff's Office, calmly telling an officer that he has a gun on him after being pulled over for running a red light. He gets out of his SUV and two police officers search him…here comes Officer Mindy Cardwell takes the gun from Arrington's waistband and it suddenly fires.
Chaos immediately ensues – another officer tells Caldwell to drop the pistol as he helps the wounded Arrington to a nearby patch of grass, blood seeping through the man's pants.
The bullet passed through Arrington's thigh, exited the inside of the leg and caused dangerous arterial bleeding – but officers quickly stopped the bleeding with a tourniquet.
Arrington, who is legally permitted to carry a weapon, is expected to make a full recovery, but he is now suing over the December incident, claiming he suffered permanent injuries that interfered with his work as a crane operator.
An internal affairs investigation sealed Caldwell's fate – the department plans to fire her. Officers noted that she had difficulty removing Arrington's gun from its holster and she accidentally stuck several fingers in the trigger guard, causing it to go off.