A Boston federal court jury found Wednesday that guns bought by the Cambridge Police Department for officers in 2018 – and replaced this year in a controversial decision – were designed defectively and that the faulty design caused injuries to a patrol officer. But the jury did not award damages to the officer, Jacques Desrosiers, for the horrific injuries he suffered when his gun fired accidentally, because jurors decided he used his weapon “unreasonably.”
Desrosiers was carrying his Sig Sauer P320 gun under his belt, without a holster, when it went off while he was adjusting its position without touching the trigger, his suit said. The shot caused severe wounds. The jury decided against the New Hampshire gun maker on three issues: The Sig Sauer P320 gun had a defective design; the defective design caused Desrosiers to be hurt; and the company failed to give adequate warning of the design flaws.
Jurors went on, though, to agree with the company’s defense that the lack of adequate warnings did not cause the officer to get hurt. They also found that Desrosiers used the gun despite “knowing that it was defective and dangerous and was injured as a result.” These findings meant that the jury did not award damages as a matter of law.
Both sides found reason to praise the verdict. “After more than two weeks of trial, the jury found that Sig Sauer is not liable to the plaintiff because he pulled the trigger of his unholstered P320 pistol,” said Sig Sauer vice president of consumer affairs Phil Strader, though the jury verdict as written did not explicitly say that. “Regarding any product defect, we stand behind the design of the P320, which is among the most tested, proven and successful handguns in recent history, and strongly disagree with any determination to the contrary.”
Samuel Haaz of the law firm of Saltz Mongeluzzi Bendesky in Philadelphia, an attorney for Desrosiers, said the jury found that the P320 was “defectively designed and those defects caused Officer Desrosier’s injury.”
“This is now the third jury that has told Sig Sauer that the P320 is defectively designed, unreasonably dangerous and caused the plaintiff’s injuries. While the jury found that Mr. Desrosiers used the P320 knowing it was defective, which does not permit him to recover damages under Massachusetts law, this verdict again emphatically shows that the P320 is prone to injuring – even killing – those that are issued or carry the gun for protection. It must be recalled or redesigned so that it stops injuring and killing its users who rely on the weapon,” Haaz said.
One among many cases
The 2022 lawsuit filed by Desrosiers and his wife was one of scores nationwide alleging that the Sig Sauer P320 gun has fired without the user pulling the trigger. Two other Cambridge police officers have made the same claims.
Retired lieutenant Thomas Ahern’s lawsuit against Sig Sauer and the city of Cambridge is scheduled to go to trial in June. Ahern, former head of the Swat team, said his gun fired while he was holding it in an approved “safe” position outside the holster. He also claims the city retaliated against him for arguing against the 2018 purchase. Officer David Albert’s claim was apparently settled before it was filed in court. Terms have not been disclosed.
Sig Sauer has denied that the gun can fire without a trigger pull and has said the weapon has five safety mechanisms to prevent such an occurrence. But critics say the safeties are all internal and that the P320 is the only gun of its type with no external safety mechanism such as a tabbed trigger or a thumb safety. Plaintiffs have been awarded damages in at least two suits against the company. The military, Immigration and Customs Enforcement and many police departments continue to use the P320, though, as does Cambridge until it gets the new guns, if that has not already happened.
External safety mechanism
Documents in the Desrosiers suit indicated that the police department bought the P320 model without external safety mechanism although Sig Sauer offered a version with a “thumb safety,” such as a lever on the frame that can block the trigger unless it’s disengaged.
A pretrial motion by Sig Sauer seeking permission to call Cambridge police officials to testify about why the department chose the P320 without a thumb safety says: “There are many reasons why customers would not want a thumb safety on their firearm since such a safety will prevent them from firing their pistol when they need to fire if the safety is not disengaged.”
The motion said that “most law enforcement departments choose to purchase their duty pistols” without external mechanisms such as a thumb safety or tabbed trigger “to protect their officers in the line of duty … Here, the Cambridge Police Department purposefully chose to purchase the P320 without a thumb safety to protect their officers in the line of duty.”
City officials have said they became aware of reports that the P320 could fire accidentally when dropped and that they delayed buying the model until Sig Sauer “upgraded” it to prevent such incidents. The guns cited in the Cambridge lawsuits involved upgraded models.
New model, same maker
In March the police department and city manager Yi-An Huang encountered opposition when they unexpectedly asked city councillors to approve appropriating $570,000 from the city’s free cash, or surplus, to replace the P320 guns. Councillors questioned why new guns were needed so soon after the city bought the Sig Sauer models and why the money for guns wasn’t included in the budget for fiscal year 2026 instead of being sought from free cash.
Police commissioner Christine Elow said that Sig Sauer was no longer making the P320 and police could not get parts for the guns. The department was also running out of pistols because of the need to equip retired officers who worked as detail officers, she said. Asked about indications that Sig Sauer continues to make the model, city spokesperson Jeremy Warnick said Cambridge officers were equipped with a “P320 Carry model” that is no longer available, and other models that “may appear similar … have several different features than what officers are equipped with.”
The city has said the lawsuits had nothing to do with the decision to replace the Sig Sauer guns. In May, the city bought Walther guns after seeking bids. The purchase also included holsters that will automatically activate police body cameras if an officer removes the gun from its holsters.
The Walther guns have a trigger safety mechanism, according to specifications of the model named in the city’s bid documents.
A stronger
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It was only this past week that a gun YouTuber [0] figured out how to reproduce the P320 uncommanded discharge. When the trigger is displaced by 1m—a condition that could be caused by poor manufacturing, fouling, or snagging—pressing on the slide will cause the gun to fire.
Compared with the decision not to use an external safety this fault is catastrophic. No other weapon on the market, including other striker fired pistols, fails like this. This may sound obvious, but a firearm should never discharge without a trigger pull. SIG has started threatening gun ranges which ban the gun. Meanwhile an airman died two weeks ago from an unintentional discharge from the P320 military variant.
I don’t think CPD can get the gun out of service any faster than they’re already going, but geeze… it’s hard to convey the severity of the situation.
[0] Wyoming Gun Project: https://youtu.be/jOMQOtOQoPk