Amtrak Cop: Worn-Out Holster Led to Foot-Shooting

An Amtrak police officer is suing the railroad, claiming it’s liable for a woman who grabbed his gun and shot him in the foot.

Sixty-five-year-old James Bullard says he was working at Philadelphia’s 30th Street Station last March when he tried to remove a disruptive woman from a McDonald’s restaurant. He says she grabbed his gun from his holster and shot him in the foot.

In the lawsuit, Bullard claims that he had a worn-out gun holster and that Amtrak didn’t provide a new holster when he requested one.

Calls to both Bullard and his attorney, Steven Lafferty, were not immediately returned.

An Amtrak spokesman declined to comment.

Latest Comments

• January 22, 2010 at 4:19 am

  Bob says:

  The holster may have been worn or may have been so old, it didn't have up-to- date retention capability. Still, the officer should have been capable of preventing the woman fr... read more
• January 22, 2010 at 2:46 am

  temblor says:

  Nah, see he wore it out practising his fast draw, which he was sure he would need someday as a subway guard. Also, aren't pistols normally secured by a strap over the handle? ... read more
• January 22, 2010 at 2:22 am

  GMAB says:

  If the holster was worn out - and he knew that it was (by his own admission since he reportedly approached AMTRACK in the first place) and that the worn condition posed a thre... read more