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KAYSVILLE — A Kaysville police officer who accidentally shot herself while doing firearms training has filed a lawsuit against the company that manufactured her holster, claiming there is a history of accidental discharges involving police officers using the same holster but the company continues to sell it.
Lacy Turner and her attorney, Peter Mifflin, on Tuesday filed a lawsuit in 2nd District Court against Federal Cartridge Company "doing business as Blackhawk! and Blackhawk! Manufacturing."
According to the lawsuit, Blackhawk introduced the Serpa in 2006 as "a retention holster for duty weapons issued to members of the United States armed services, including the United States Marine Corps, to be used with the standard issue M9 Beretta duty pistol." Blackhawk later began selling the holsters to civilians. But not all civilians have M9 Beretta guns, and those other weapons can have different safety mechanisms than the M9, the lawsuit states.
The lawsuit notes that in order for a person to draw a gun from a Serpa holster, a retention mechanism must first be pressed.
"The release for the retention mechanism is located on the exterior of the holster on the outboard side, in the area of the trigger/trigger guard of the firearm," according to the lawsuit. The shooter has to use their trigger finger to press a release button before the gun can be pulled out of the holster.
But if the shooter is under duress, a series of failures typically occurs, the lawsuit claims. If the retention mechanism is not deactivated prior to drawing the pistol, it "locks" the gun in the holster.
"Once locked, the shooter experiences a greater amount of duress," the lawsuit states. "The shooter then tends to use more force in an effort to remove the weapon from the holster and tends to transition from digital-pad to digital-tip pressure which causes the trigger finger to bend. ... When the firearm is finally removed from the holster, this bend in the trigger finger positions the finger proximal to the trigger or on the trigger."
The lawsuit contends that the holster manufacturer should know that military members and law enforcement are "exposed to chaotic work environments and hostile situations where foreseeable users will be under physical, mental and emotional stress/duress." But the company still markets the Serpa holster "to at-risk military and law enforcement populations" who "need to draw a weapon under stress or duress in less-than-ideal situations."
"(Blackhawk) has recklessly and knowingly endangered (Turner) and members of the armed forces and first responders with a defective holster for more than a decade," according to the lawsuit.
Federal Cartridge Company did not immediately respond to a request for comment Wednesday.
The lawsuit also alleges that Blackhawk was aware of safety problems with the holster as early as 2010, and lists several examples of students at law enforcement training facilities who used the holster and suffered self-inflicted gunshot wounds.
In June 2022, Turner was training at a gun range in Bountiful, including practicing drawing her weapon quickly in life-threatening situations. She was wearing a Serpa holster and using a Glock handgun.
"Department qualification tests are a high-pressure experience as (Turner's) employability and promotability are at stake based on her ability to qualify on her duty weapon. While training at the range, as she attempted to draw her weapon, the weapon discharged a bullet into her leg," the lawsuit says.
Fellow officers applied a tourniquet and Turner drove herself to a local hospital. Her wound did not heal on its own, however, and it September 2022 she had to have surgery.
"As a result of this episode, (she) suffers from post-traumatic stress disorder and surface paresthesia in the area of the exit wound with itching pain below the skin," according to the lawsuit.
She said she incurred nearly $16,000 in medical bills and missed more than four months of work.
"Due to this episode, (Turner's) worklife expectancy as a police officer is impaired. (She) estimates those damages to range between $500,000 to $1 million."
The lawsuit notes that the holster has been banned from the training ranges of police departments in Los Angeles; Dallas; Las Vegas; Austin, Texas; Bothell, Washington; Fayetteville, North Carolina; and by Connecticut State Police.
The U.S. Department of Homeland Security Federal Law Enforcement Training Center did a study on the holster and concluded that "Serpa CQC holsters are problematic and pose a safety hazard," the lawsuit states.
Turner is accusing the holster manufacturer of negligence and reckless endangerment, saying it failed to "incorporate a reasonably safe design to by used by consumers and police officers in training."
"The use of the trigger finger as an active retention release mechanism is a design defect in the holster," according to the lawsuit. "The user of the trigger finger as an active retention release mechanism with a pistol that does not have a mechanical safety is a design defect in the holster."
