A cop accidentally fired a gun inside a homeless shelter

Seattle police Officer Nana Appiah-Agyekum received a three-day suspension for accidentally firing a revolver inside a homeless shelter while trying to unload it, according to a disciplinary report released last week. After reviewing his bodyworn video, the Office of Police Accountability determined that Appiah-Agyekum’s handling of the weapon was “objectively unsafe.”

On June 28, 2024, a Community Service Officer was helping a homeless woman enter a shelter when staff discovered a loaded revolver in her backpack. The CSO called 911, and they dispatched Appiah-Agyekum to assist.

Appiah-Agyekum entered the office, took the weapon from the backpack, and placed it in a paper bag. After unsuccessfully attempting to release the cylinder, Appiah-Agyekum cocked the hammer and tried again. Then, he left the office and placed the paper bag on top of a package of instant noodles in the hall.

He continued trying to release the cylinder with the hammer cocked. As the OPA report notes, the revolver was in single-action position, meaning the gun would fire with less pressure on the trigger. Appiah-Agyekum pressed on both sides of the cylinder in a vain effort to move it.

The officer put his thumb on the thumb piece, which releases the cylinder, and attempted to wiggle the cylinder with his hand on either side. His ring finger briefly went inside the trigger guard and almost hit the trigger.

Appiah-Agyekum decocked the revolver, spun the cylinder and recocked it again. The bodyworn video shows that his left index finger was inside the trigger guard while he was pressing on the cylinder with his right thumb. He fired the gun toward the floor and struck a bottle of Clorox bleach on the ground.

In his OPA interview, Appiah-Agyekum said he was trying to “break” the revolver, referring to how a top-break revolver is unloaded. However, this was a swing-out model. He said it was only the second time he had handled a revolver, but he believed he could unload it safely without help. Appiah-Agyekum denied touching the trigger and maintained that he didn’t know why it went off.

Explaining its findings, the OPA noted that Appiah-Agyekum spent more than two minutes trying to unload the gun and occasionally pointed it toward the office, where the gun’s owner and the facility manager were. Given his obvious inexperience with revolvers, Appiah-Agyekum should’ve requested help from another officer, OPA argued, and “he exercised poor judgment by manipulating the revolver without understanding its basic mechanics.”

Hired in 2018, Officer Appiah-Agyekum made $232,432 in 2023, including $119,014 in overtime.