A federal jury will decide who was at fault when a Somerset County sheriff’s deputy was shot in the leg by a holstered handgun.
Deputy David Cole was walking to his pickup truck during work when the P320 handgun fired in the holster on May 4, 2022. He sued Sig Sauer in 2023 in U.S. District Court of Maine in Bangor alleging the company was negligent and reckless in its actions.
A nine-person jury on Monday listened to opposing lawyers describe how the gun at dispute, a Sig Sauer P320, fired without Cole touching the trigger. The bullet tunneled through Cole’s right thigh and calf before lodging in his ankle.
Cole, who still works for the Somerset County Sheriff’s Office, has lasting injuries, both physical and emotional, his attorney, Robert Zimmerman, said. Zimmerman told a story about how Cole recently tried to run after a “violent suspect” and fell to the ground, leaving his partner to pursue the person alone through the woods.
“Dave will tell you that he prays, literally prays, that his work limitations won’t end in a disaster for himself or for someone he needs to protect,” Zimmerman said. “He feels this way at 43 [years old]. What’s he going to feel at 53, at 63, at 73 and beyond?”
At the center of the dispute is if the design of the gun is faulty and caused the shooting or if the trigger was not adequately protected, which allowed a jacket zipper to pull the trigger.
Zimmerman said the gun fired because of design choices Sauer made. The company knew about unintended discharges for at least five years before Cole’s shooting, Zimmerman said.
The gun does not fire without the trigger being pulled, Sig Sauer attorney Martha Gaythwaite said. That pull can happen by a person or a foreign object.
In Cole’s case, a zipper from his jacket lodged between the trigger and holster and fired the gun as Cole moved his jacket, Gaythwaite said. The holster, which is not made by Sig Sauer, did not adequately protect the trigger, she said.
Body camera footage shows Cole starting to take his jacket off as he walks outside in the moment before the shooting, Gaythwaite said while showing the video. She said evidence will show Cole had taken off his jacket and as he reached with his right hand to undo his vest, the zipper pulled the trigger.
“It was an accident,” she said. “Officer Cole did not know the zipper had become stuck in that location. That is what the evidence will show.”
Zimmerman denies the holster is at fault. Evidence during the trial will show the holster Cole used covers more of the trigger than the holster made by Sig Sauer, he said.
“If officer Cole had been properly trained, he would have been told not to let foreign objects get into the holster area,” Gaythwaite said, adding that the sheriff’s office chose to do only four hours of training instead of intensive training and repetition with the gun. The department had started using the guns only a few months prior.
The sheriff’s office also mandates deputies carry a live round in the firing chamber, a common decision by law enforcement, but that shows additional training and a proper holster are necessary, Gaythwaite said.
Sig makes the P320 with a manual thumb safety, but the Somerset County Sheriff’s Office chose to not include safety, Gaythwaite said. She added the sheriff’s office does not allow manual thumb safeties under a department policy.
About 93% of the P320s Sauer sells cannot have a safety added, Zimmerman said.
“It’s simple,” Zimmerman said. “The evidence will show a gun firing in a holster without its user touching the trigger shouldn’t happen.”
It’s natural to have sympathy for Cole and his family, but that is not a legal standard that the jury should allow to influence its decisions, Gaythwaite said.
“This is a very, very sad case,” she said. “Everyone in this courtroom feels sorry for officer Cole and his family … but the sympathy that you feel for officer Cole and his family does not change the facts in this case.”
Zimmerman said at the end of the trial he will ask the jury to give Cole and his wife, Kimberly Cole, a “substantial award” for his ongoing pain and suffering because the P320 was defective.
Cole’s father was Somerset County sheriff’s Deputy Eugene Cole, who was fatally shot by John D. Williams on April 25, 2018, in Norridgewock while trying to arrest Williams on a drug charge. Williams was convicted of murder and sentenced to life in prison.
The trial is scheduled to last two weeks.