Local news
The Santa
Clara County District Attorney’s Office has opted not to file criminal
charges against a veteran Gilroy police officer following a May incident
where his teenage stepdaughter shot herself in the leg with his
personal handgun.
Assistant District Attorney Cindy Hendrickson told the Dispatch
this week there was no evidence the officer—whose name was not
released—acted in disregard or indifference toward human life in storing
the firearm, which the law requires for a criminal negligence charge.
The May 4 shooting on the 500 block of El Cerrito
Way was the result of “inattention or a mistake in judgment at most” on
part of the 13-year-old girl, Hendrickson said. The girl, not named due
to her age, gained access to a .22-caliber handgun belonging to the
officer, and shot herself in the leg around 3 p.m. It was not the
officer’s duty weapon and was registered as a personal firearm,
according to investigators.
“The facts suggest a confluence of events that
normally didn’t happen led to a tragic accident,” Hendrickson said,
adding that the unnamed officer “normally stored his personal firearm
safely.”
