Officer Fired After Shooting Driver With His Own Handgun

The Second Amendment Foundation has a high bar for stories involving police misconduct. Many stories aren’t retold, especially if they involve simple or common mistakes.

The Dec. 13 shooting of motorist Jason Arrington by Jacksonville Sheriff’s Office officer Mindy Cardwell is different. Quite simply, it may be one of the dumbest things a cop has done in quite a while.

Age Restricted Police Video of the Tragic Accident

Arrington was pulled over around 5:10 p.m. after allegedly running a red light on Main Street and 27^th Street. After telling the officer that he was armed, Arrington was told to get out of the vehicle.

Arrington, it should be pointed out, was legally allowed to carry a concealed firearm, and officers later described him as being “very compliant.”

Arrington got out and put his hands on top of his SUV, while Cardwell attempted to remove his handgun, which was on his right side in an IWB holster. Officer Cardwell can be seen struggling to remove the handgun.

During her internal affairs interview, Cardwell admitted that her finger accidentally slipped into the trigger guard inside Arrington’s pants “while she was using her non-dominant hand to remove the gun.”

“Unfortunately combined with the holster and the pants, it just was not coming out freely,” Cardwell said, according to the internal affairs report. “I think, not being aware of where my fingers were on the inside of the trigger, obviously an accident happened that I’m at fault for. In hindsight, I wish we could have slowed it down and done a thousand things differently.”

The weapon discharged and the round went through Arrington’s right thigh, which he later claimed left him with “lasting physical impairments that affect his ability to work as a crane operator.”

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Officials determined Cardwell was “grossly incompetent,” and she was fired, but investigators declined to pursue criminal charges.

Several days later, the Sheriff’s Office sent out memos to its staff reminding them that concealed carriers are not a threat and that “officers should not seize a detained person’s gun or remove it from a holster or vehicle without ‘articulable suspicion’ that the person presents a threat to the safety of others, including the officer.”

“The mere fact that a person is carrying a concealed firearm does not automatically mean that a person poses a threat or is ineligible to carry a concealed firearm. Unless an officer has articulable suspicion that the detained person presents a threat to the safety of citizens or officers or has knowledge that the detained person is ineligible to carry a concealed firearm, officers should not seize a firearm (i.e. remove it from holster, vehicle, pocket, bag, etc.) from someone awfully carrying it,” the memo states.

Arrington, very clearly, was not a threat. He complied quickly with everything the officers asked him to do.

Takeaways

The Jacksonville Sheriff’s Office responded about as well as they could to this no-win situation. Officers rendered good First Aid—a tourniquet and an Israeli compression bandage. They told their superiors it was a negligent discharge quickly over the radio. Their administrators put out the facts as soon as they were ready. However, their now former officer’s misdeeds left the agency totally exposed to the lawsuit that Arrington will undoubtedly and very deservedly file.

Former officer Cardwell shot an upstanding citizen with his own handgun for no reason. Carrying a concealed firearm, which the 39-year-old did lawfully, is certainly not a crime. Besides, Arrington was extremely polite and compliant even after he was shot. He only swore once as an officer tightened the tourniquet on his wounded leg.

Officers may be forced to explain why they decided to disarm him during a minor traffic violation. That will be the real question. They should have issued a citation and simply let him drive away.

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About Lee Williams

Lee Williams, who is also known as “The Gun Writer,” is the chief editor of the Second Amendment Foundation’s Investigative Journalism Project. Until recently, he was also an editor for a daily newspaper in Florida. Before becoming an editor, Lee was an investigative reporter at newspapers in three states and a U.S. Territory. Before becoming a journalist, he worked as a police officer. Before becoming a cop, Lee served in the Army. He’s earned more than a dozen national journalism awards as a reporter, and three medals of valor as a cop. Lee is an avid tactical shooter.