gun in holster hip IWB

In many states, the law requires that if you are stopped by law enforcement during a traffic stop, you must inform the officer that you have a concealed firearm in the vehicle. These laws are seemingly put in place for the safety of officers, although it seems unlikely that anyone intending to shoot an officer would actually disclose their weapon; rather, only law-abiding citizens would do so.

A problem arises, however, when the officer initiating the stop does not know how to safely handle a firearm. That’s exactly what occurred on December 13 in Jacksonville, Florida, and now the officer has been terminated. Here’s what transpired.

According to a report in the Miami Herald, a male officer and Officer Mindy Cardwell, both from the Jacksonville Sheriff’s Office, stopped a driver for an alleged red light violation. The 40-year-old man driving the car claimed that the light was yellow as he went through the intersection.

According to the Herald report, the male officer asked the driver if he had anything “crazy” in the car, to which the driver replied that he had a firearm on him. The officer then informed his colleague that the driver had a pistol but was being “very compliant.” They then asked him to exit the car as they planned to disarm him.

After the man stepped out of the vehicle and informed the officer that his pistol was holstered on his side, he was instructed to place his hands on top of the SUV. It was then that Officer Cardwell attempted to remove the pistol from its holster.

When the gun wouldn’t come out of the holster easily, Officer Cardwell began to pull on it in an attempt to take possession. During this process, she inadvertently shot the man in the leg, and after securing his gun, the officers immediately started first aid by applying a tourniquet until first responders arrived. He was then taken to the hospital in stable condition.

According to the Herald report, Officer Cardwell stated in an interview with internal affairs investigators that her finger accidentally slipped into the triggerguard of the gun while she was using her non-dominant hand to remove it.

“Unfortunately combined with the holster and the pants, it just was not coming out freely,” Officer Cardwell said, according to the 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.”

On January 21, the Jacksonville Sheriff’s Office announced that Officer Cardwell had been fired. Additionally, the man who Cardwell accidentally shot said he plans to sue the department over the incident.

97 COMMENTS

  1. “Officer Cardwell said, according to the 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.’ ”

    Gasp! that’s even more surprising – a police officer not screaming ‘officer safety’ and ‘guns!’ and police department not spending months in some investigation and a police union not rushing in to protect the officer from charges to keep them from being held responsible for their actions… but rather a police officer simply admitting it and taking responsibility for their actions. That’s refreshing for a change.

    • Honestly would consider retraining in this case if the officer was salvageable. Incompetence can be remedied if they have capacity and willingness.

      • Please explain how you could retrain this one. She picked up a firearm by the trigger. I do not believe she has the IQ to be trusted with a jar of marshmallow fluff.

        • To answer all(or all one) of you it is simple enough. Stupid mistakes happen and can be trained out of the person is not inherently retarded and no one incident is not enough to tell in any realistic manner. What struck me was the lack of evasion or offered excuses regarding the incident that would indicate stupid mistake or being retarded aside there is integrity present and that if trainable is an absolutely critical factor absent for many in law enforcement.

          • “Stupid mistakes happen and can be trained out of the person…”

            It would be financially risky for the the police to retain a person responsible for an ND. If it should happen that the guilty cop makes another mistake bringing attention, the police would have virtually no defense as to why the incompetent cop was retained.

        • That ship sailed long before I was born and for NY especially you don’t want to know how bad it really is re recruiting and retention before we even get to quality.

            • At this point I am happy to cut dirtbags of all demographics and keep honest retards that are correctable. There are differences in rates of various issues for every group but ultimately under staffed, under trained, and under qualified describe a lot of agencies and we have to roll with what we have not what may have been better.

      • That she did not lie or try to avoid responsibility sets her above many who would not have been so honorable. Summary termination seems to indicate there were other things going into the decision. She was probably in the wrong line of work though.

    • Honestly would consider retraining in this case if the officer was salvageable. Incompetence can be remedied if they have capacity and willingness.

      • Obviously you have to always keep your finger out of the trigger guard, but I wonder if she was trained for this specific scenario. If they’re going to disarm everyone before writing a ticket, then they should be training for that. If she wasn’t properly trained, then she might be able to sue as well, especially since Jacksonville is liberal.

        If a holster is canted, it can actually be somewhat difficult to remove it from behind. Yankee had a video on this once. His kid couldn’t retrieve the gun from behind with an open top leather holster.

        • Especially if it is a properly adjusted Kydex holster. The Alien Gear rigs I wear make it almost impossible to remove the firearm from the rear.

          • Its not ‘almost impossible’: A person from your holster side and a little towards the rear – grip, apply forward pressure, then up and out forward. Gotta be fast.

            I had someone actually try to snatch my gun from behind as I stood in a checkout line, that’s exactly how he did it. I was able to keep the gun from coming out of the holster completely and if I had not grabbed his hand and managed to twist it away he would have had the gun easy peasy. His only failing was to get a tight grip on it thus letting me pry his hand off and twist it away but even then he had it mostly out of the holster. We struggled a bit, and I maintained control of it, then he ran off.

            It was a properly adjusted kydex holster, it wasn’t Alien Gear, but that ‘friction’ retention is not worth beans if someone does it the right way and I don’t care how many videos or gun manufacturers or people say its difficult because it isn’t. Its just ‘friction retention’ no matter how you adjust it, its only a matter of overcoming it with the right amount of force and angle.

            Its rare that I carry OWB open, just happen to have done it that day for the quick trip to the store. Without thinking just used the OWB open carry ‘friction retention’ holster I normally used only on the property.

            I get most all my holsters for free, my brother gets them for free from his clients as samples or give-aways and he gives them to me and sometimes others. I’ve had just about every name brand on the market over time. I had boxes and boxes of holsters, brand new, sometimes I would try them out but mostly I just gave them away to new shooters or took the boxes to the range and let people take what they wanted.

            Hundreds of those ‘friction retention’ holsters from name brands gotten over time, including Alien Gear, brand new still in packaging, stored away in boxes waiting for the next range trip to let people have them or the next people I could give them to.

            That day my gun almost got snatched, that evening I destroyed every one of those friction retention holsters. Cut them in half. I’ll never use another OWB friction retention holster again and I’ll never give another one of them away again. The thought of getting shot by a bad guy with my own gun, or someone else getting shot by a bad guy, with the gun he snatched right out my holster ’cause ‘friction retention’ only…naw, that’s just too much negligence.

            All my OWB holsters, open or concealed (i.e coat or shirt covering), now are at least level II retention.

            It might be rare for actual physical gun grab, but there are a lot more who have eyed you thinking about it and its only a matter of them deciding to try it or not.

    • Kind of hard not to admit to making a mistake on this one, all on camera, no struggle. How could she have lied about her ‘whoopsie’?

  2. At this point police are a mix of lazys who just want to retire at 40 will full benefits, bitter incels with axes to grind and DEI hires who think they’re breaking ceilings of some sort.

    Don’t trust any of them. Most probably aren’t malicious but plenty are definitely stupid.

    • Shire-man,

      Some law enforcement officers are high-quality and honorable individuals whose job skills are excellent.

      The real problem, if police foist an interaction upon you, is that you have no idea whether Officer Friendly is a high-quality professional, a lazy @$$, or an incompetent nincompoop.

    • A shot in the leg can be a permanent injury. And the article does mention that the officers had to apply a tourniquet. You generally don’t get a tourniquet, an ambulance ride, stitches in a hospital, and rehabilitation and get to go back to running hurdles events or doing high-jump after that. It’s possible that you might not even be able to go back to walking the dog to the front lawn without bringing your cane or walker.

      If it’s a permanent injury, then it’s not likely that any amount of money from a lawsuit is likely to be enough. The best you can hope for is to have enough to pay for all the health costs you’re going to have now that won’t be covered by your insurance.

      • no way that you can say if he considers the compensation worth whatever, if any, disability remains.
        if a cop shot me, my insurance would cover it. and by the time it was done, their department would have.

    • “a shot in the leg giving his bottom line a shot in the arm.”

      Preach it, his net worth after all medical bills should be at least $100,000 positive…

  3. Why remove the damn thing? Dude is standing by the car with hands on head, it seems to me that the threat was minimal at that point.

    • Not supposed to do anything with the firearm unless there are other issues (person is violent, has a warrant, under arrest) in FL. There is no duty to inform unless asked specifically if you have a firearm.

    • My thoughts exactly. Why was the person being disarmed? Were they under arrest and being charged? And over a minor traffic stop? Surely a caution might have been more appropriate over running an amber light.

      Many cops have the approach to “cuff ’em all and let the courts sort ’em out”.

  4. Duty to inform laws are stupid as are police policies requiring them to take possession of a holstered firearm in the case of a simple traffic stop. Good thing this poor sap wasn’t carrying appendix!

    • Yes, they’re stupid. I also don’t agree with the experts who tell us we should always inform the cop first thing even if we aren’t under those laws. I’m not telling them anything I don’t have to. And stop asking me where I’m heading. It’s none of your business. You pulled me over for a freaking taillight being out, Inspector Clouseau.

      • My favorite is “Do you know why I pulled you over sir?”
        By the way, they don’t see the same humor as you do when you respond ” Gee, I’d expect that you’d know.” , but remember that ANYTHING you say will get jotted down on his incident report, so after that just zip it.

        • The correct answer is always, “I don’t believe you had any valid reason to pull me over, officer; I can’t wait to hear your evidence.”

        • “My favorite is “Do you know why I pulled you over sir?””

          My standard reply is “No, but something tells me I’m about to find out…”

    • Florida does not have “duty to imform”…so unless specifically asked by an officer you dont have to mention it.

      Since the possession of the weapon was perfectly legal, whe asked if he had “anything crazy” in the car…the drive could, and should have said no.

    • Agreed. Duty to inform should be banned, federally. Fortunately, I live in a state that not only is there no duty to inform, but officers asking if you are armed is forbidden.

      Maybe we should be allowed to disarm the officers, for our “safety”.

    • Ohio used to have a duty to inform, but it did not require officers to take possession of the firearm. I’ve had a few traffic violation stops and never once did the officer show any interest in laying hands on my firearm as long as I also refrained from doing so.

  5. ATF hijinks and deceptions and lies:

    President Trump order all DEI programs to end. The Office of Personnel Management (OPM) sent a notice to agency heads informing them of the changes and ordered closure of any DEI programs by 5 PM on 22 Jan 2025, and all those DEI program employees were to be placed on administrative leave with pay (“pending review”, basically waiting to be terminated – the White House released a memo to federal agencies ordering them to not only place all DEI hires on paid leave by 5pm Wednesday, but to quickly form plans to fire every one of them.).

    However, the ATF got caught playing games to avoid getting rid of DEI – instead of complying with the EO and the order from OPM they quietly changed the job title of their Chief Diversity Officer Lisa T. Bayskin to attempt to circumvent the ban (seen here > before the change in title – on 1/20/25: h ttps://pbs.twimg.com/media/Gh7UsErWcAEkt6P?format=jpg&name=small — and now with change in title on 1/22/25 with title change to ‘Senior Executive Office Of The Director > h ttps://pbs.twimg.com/media/Gh7UsErW0AABmhh?format=jpg&name=small).

    ATF busted trying to circumvent DEI ban, Musk has idea for agency.

    h ttps://www.bizpacreview.com/2025/01/23/atf-busted-trying-to-circumvent-dei-ban-musk-has-idea-for-agency-1517983/

    h ttps://x.com/EricBurlison/status/1882198732252545389

    • I saw reporting that multiple agencies were changing job descriptions ahead of the inauguration. Obviously, HR will be full of pro-DEI commies. Recall a university professor a couple of years ago saying they should continue with DEI without calling it DEI.

      • Yeah, they did that. But, its not going to save them. No matter the job title change, it turns out they can still be terminated. These are in the executive branch, they are not like regular employees and are not protected by normal federal employee protections or federal labor law in terms of termination. In the executive branch they serve at the will and pleasure of the president – he can terminate them at any time without reason or cause, its only the paperwork and procedures to do it after that.

    • “ATF busted trying to circumvent DEI ban,…”

      Good thing that EO requires those aware of it to report it…

  6. First, there was no reason to disarm the driver, he was compliant. Second, and most importantly, she did NOT accidentally discharge the firearm; it was her arrogance, complacency, and negligence that caused it. Accidents don’t happen with a firearm; they can always be traced back to an error made by a human.

  7. Officer: “Ya got anything crazy in the car?”

    Driver: “What do you mean by ‘crazy’?”

    Officer: “ya know, any guns or drugs, anything illegal.”

    Driver: “I have a gun.”

    Officer: “Ok, step out of the car please.”

    Driver: “Why?”

    Officer: “’cause you have a gun, its for my safety.”

    Driver: “You have a gun, I don’t feel safe.”

  8. Many jurisdictions SOP is to disarm the motorist, run the serial number for stolen firearms. (Cuz every licensed holder may have just held up a local gun store.)

    • And you can’t do anything about it because you don’t have standing unless they use it as evidence against you which they can only do if you were dumb enough to pull this crap right after robbing the local gun store.

    • Why should a jurisdiction be permitted to decide this? It is unrelated to the traffic stop. I thought SCOTUS ruled that a traffic stop can’t be a fishing expedition.

      What if the drivers says I don’t answer questions unrelated to the traffic stop without a lawyer?

  9. I was on the job for 30 years, during my career, the most dangerous few hours were on range qualification day. Just amazing how inept about 50% of the officers were with firearms. Most had never held a firearm before becoming a L.E. officer. We had a female officer who was assigned to the Det division that was lucky to qualify after numerous attempts, she also had no idea how to load and operate a mod 870 pump shotgun. I am sure most of the officers never shot their sidearms except for qualification day. Mind boggling!

    • Some of the best deals to be had are ex-cop guns. Most of them have been serviced regularly by an armorer & filed very little, sometimes a bit if cosmetic wear but sometimes even very little of that. I got an ex-cop Glock 26 gen4 that had barely been fired, the magazine is not original, and otherwise looks like it’s been sitting in a display case.

  10. The same thing almost happened to me. The officer repeatedly squeezed the trigger. Tanks to the manual safety on my Smith and Wsson third generation pistol, there was no discharge of a firearm. I subsequently discovered evidence that the officer was intentionally attempting to shoot me. I have not yielded to the temptation to hunt him and exterminate him, yet.

    • Extermination would have started when someone was taking pot shots at my son with a shotgun.
      Go fly your exterminator dream somewheres else cause it ain’t gonna happen.

      • unfortunately: my son had already called 911.

        of course it is equally unfortunate that I attempted to evict when I discovered the marijuanna grow.. I didn’t understand that the State of Oregon had entered into a criminal conspiracy with the Oregon Marijuana Mafia to expropriate the property of innocent victims for the purpose of committing Federal felonies.

        we need to unlearn the normal response to rely on the so called justice system

  11. “In hindsight, I wish we could have slowed it down and done a thousand things differently.”

    It was a traffic stop with a “very compliant” driver…what the hell wa the rush?

  12. My Hometown Keystone cops.
    Last year, maybe 2 years ago, they unloaded 60 rds on a guy stuck in a drive-thru lane; every round missed its target.
    When only the finest will do, call team JSO.

  13. I live in a state where there is no duty to notify upon contact with law enforcement, but if asked specifically (i.e. “you have a gun?” or “is there a gun in the car?”) you must tell them.

    I think Florida is the same way, isn’t it? If it is: According to the article the guy was asked if he had anything ‘crazy’ in the car. A gun legally carried is nothing ‘crazy’ nor is it ‘crazy’ but rather a ‘gun’… poor choice of words from the officer if she was concerned about a gun, he wasn’t asked specifically about having a gun. This guy, due to the way the question was asked (i.e. ‘anything crazy’) could have legally answered “no” – he did not need nor was he under any obligation to ‘define’ ‘crazy’ for the officer by saying he had a gun.

    But, this was some unnecessary over reaction by the officer. Is this some sort of policy in Florida, that a traffic light violation stop gets you out of the car to be disarmed if you are armed?

    This was a traffic stop for a traffic light violation. So big deal he had a gun – here they just tell you to keep your hands visible on the steering wheel if you tell them you have a gun if they ask, no one wants you to get out of the car for a traffic violation stop and no one wants to disarm you because of a traffic stop.

    • It’s all trap to trip you up.
      Do you have? and if you say no and they do find contraband it’s a concealing evidence from an officer charge.
      Yah can’t lie to a cop but they can lie to you.

  14. ‘F*** Trump! Biden Forever!’: Haitian Criminal Goes Ballistic As ICE Gets to Work Rounding Up Illegals.

    “If you’re wondering if we chose the right guy for the job of President of the United States, an illegal Haitian migrant just confirmed it.

    A Fox News Report captured video of the ICE raids currently happening in Boston. They’re successfully capturing and transporting illegal migrants in the ‘sanctuary city,’ and one of them had some choice words to scream out of the window as he was being taken away.

    ‘F*** Trump! You feel me? Yo, Biden forever, bro!’ shouted the Haitain gangster. ‘Thank Obama for everything he did for me, bro!’

    According to ICE, this man was a gang member with 17 prior convictions. …

    …”

    h ttps://redstate.com/brandon_morse/2025/01/23/f-trump-biden-forever-haitian-criminal-goes-ballistic-as-ice-gets-to-work-rounding-up-illegals-n2184719

  15. A rookie pointed my 1911 at my son during “a your tag lights out” stop. I pushed my son aside and said,” be careful with that, do you realize you just pointed a loaded gun at my son”
    He didn’t give a fuck, it was all on cop camera and the other cop sitting in the car seen the fuck up.
    Another time stopped because 5mph over the speed limit( oh yeah some will) jacking around with my tt33 trying to unload it, you cant run the slide on a tt33 if it’s on half cock, points the gun at his own head trying to figure out what he’s doing wrong, finally he says is this broke? Yeah its broke.
    Why do you carry it?
    To scare people.
    Why do you want to scare people.
    Why do you wear a black uniform?
    Fucking idiots.
    I’ll tell all I don’t like cops. Why, well because when the man says disarm the citizens they’ll be all in one that disregarding their oath to protect the constitution.
    Just following orders.
    ( if I don’t I’ll lose my job and retirement pension, constitution and oaths be damned ,but can’t lose that)
    Just following orders.

  16. If you hand over your CWP (Concealed Weapon Permit) along with your driver’s license, the cop shouldn’t disarm you.

    By HAVING a CWP, you’ve been through a background check to confirm that you have no record of violent crimes. By that, you’ve already proven that you are a member of a group of people who statistically have committed fewer crimes than the cop’s own group of people who are other cops.

    As such, you should be given the respect you have earned. If the cop is going to write you a ticket, then he should get on with it with no further questions, and then he should let you be on your way.

    • “Respect you have earned ”
      LOL, double LOL
      I can see you’ve not had much interactions with the Respect Mah Badge elites.

  17. Why did they take his gun at all? He was being cooperative, had a CCW Permit, and was not being the least adversarial. They could have just wrote him a citation and moved on.

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