PORT ST. LUCIE, Fla. — An internal affairs review is underway after a gun went off inside the Port St. Lucie Police Department headquarters.
Fortunately, no one was hurt.
On March 30, a sergeant admitted to negligently discharging his firearm inside the Port St. Lucie Police Department, causing a window to shatter.
Port St. Lucie Police Chief John Bolduc said Sgt. Aaron Martin was preparing to go to the range the next day.
"He unloaded his gun and was practicing drawing it. What he failed to do was take the round out of the chamber," Bolduc said.
No one was injured, and there was no damage to any vehicles outside.
"God bless him for facing the right direction in his office. He had the door closed and everything," Bolduc said.
Sgt. Martin is a 20-year law enforcement veteran and husband of the current city mayor.
The chief said there’s no formal investigation in this specific case, but in situations where there is an accidental discharge, they will take the reports that were filed and run them through an internal affairs review.
"What we’ve been doing and have done in the past is supervisors counseling. That’s the very lowest corrective action we have," Bolduc said.
The chief said they will also look to see if any policies were broken or if the department didn’t provide the officer with enough training.
"Typically when we’re handling firearms, when we’re doing it for training purposes, we clear the weapon then we have someone else check the weapon so there are two sets of eyes," Bolduc said.
