Police Union Sues City, Wants All Its Guns Replaced

The union representing Milwaukee police officers wants to see all of the department-issued pistols replaced after another incident where one of the guns appears to have inadvertently discharged.

On Sept. 10, in the process of investigating a hit-and-run crash, one officer shot another without ever taking a weapon out of the holster or pulling the trigger.

“Once the scene was rendered safe, the 35-year-old officer conducted a search of the heavily damaged vehicle. During this search the officer’s firearm, which was in his holster, inadvertently discharged one time striking the 41-year-old officer who was standing in the vicinity at the time of the discharge,” said the Milwaukee Police Department in a media release describing the incident.

The Milwaukee Police Association says the department-issued SIG Sauger P320 firearms have inadvertently fired three times in two years, twice injuring officers.

“It is unacceptable that we now have hundreds of cases around the [country] with known unintentional discharges and the city is failing to act,” said union president Andrew Wagner in a statement. “We file this lawsuit not just for the safety of our members and their families, but for all Milwaukee residents, who we believe could fall victim to another unintentional discharge if these guns are not replaced.”

MPD has used the weapon since July 2019. The department uses nine-millimeter bullets.

Officer Adam Maritato, the victim in a July 2020 inadvertent shooting, is a co-plaintiff with the union. Maritato was shot in the leg by another officer’s holstered weapon while apprehending a suspect.

Could the city replace the weapons to resolve the lawsuit? “That’s something we’re looking into right now,” said Mayor Cavalier Johnson on Tuesday. He declined further comment, citing the pending lawsuit.

More than a dozen federal lawsuits are currently pending about the weapon. In 2017, SIG Sauer settled a class-action lawsuit over a safety defect in the gun involving its lack of a mechanical disconnector. But Milwaukee’s weapons were manufactured after that specific issue was resolved. An investigation of the weapon that shot Maritato in the right leg found it lacked a safety lever spring, as did all of the other MPD firearms, but that the spring was removed from the gun’s design. The weapon was first manufactured in 2014 and some lawsuits take issue with the manufacturing process used to machine the weapon.

In 2019, a press release from the manufacturer quoted then-police chief Alfonso Morales praising the gun. “We chose the Sig Sauer P320 as the official duty firearm for the men and women of the Milwaukee Police Department based on the pistol’s superior performance, accuracy, and dependability throughout our rigorous testing process,” said Morales. “During this transition, we are finding that our officers appreciate the ability to choose their grip size based on the modularity of the P320, and we are seeing the positive effects of this comfort in higher qualifying scores overall. Our transition to the SIG Sauer P320 has been seamless, and we couldn’t be more pleased with our decision to make it the official duty pistol of the Milwaukee Police Department.”

The association is represented by Thomas Sucevic and Brendan Matthews of Cermele & Matthews. The lawsuit asks that the city replace every firearm, award damages for injuries and cover legal fees associated with the case. A notice of claim was first filed in 2021.