HOUSTON, Texas (KTRK) — Houston police officer Richard Fernandez Jr. plays it over and over again in his mind. It was January 20, 2025, and he was working traffic control for a parade.
“I heard a pop, but it didn’t sound like a gunshot,” he told ABC13. “I looked down and I saw that I had a hole in my pant leg. And then I realized that I was bleeding. “
Fernandez, a 35-year veteran, says he never touched his holstered weapon, a Sig Sauer P320, let alone the trigger.
He still lacks feeling in his foot. He is suing the maker of the weapon he used for two years on the job.
“It’s so unfortunate that this happened to him,” attorney Kendall Speer said, “especially because we know that Sig Sauer has known about these issues with this gun for so long.”
Attorney Scott Siscoe said, “We want Sig to take responsibility for their product. We want them to take accountability to protect the public. We don’t want this to happen again. “
Sig Sauer has a website called P320Truth.com, refuting what it claims are either malicious or erroneous claims.
Sig Sauer writes, “The P320 CANNOT, under any circumstances, discharge without a trigger pull. This is verified through extensive testing by SIG SAUER, the U.S. Military, elite law enforcement agencies, and independent laboratories.”
Along with videos and news updates, the company also writes, “Uninformed, agenda-driven parties recently launched attacks against SIG SAUER’s most tested, most reliable, and most durable product – the P320 pistol. This misinformation causes confusion and uncertainty among our valued customers.”
However, ABC News reported this week that the U.S. Air Force Global Strike Command has paused the use of a military version of the pistol after a Security Forces airman died at a Wyoming base.
Additionally, two years ago, the AP reported that a lawsuit filed in U.S. federal court in Concord, New Hampshire, claimed over 100 incidents of the P320 pistol unintentionally discharging when the user believed they did not pull the trigger.
“My hand wasn’t anywhere near the gun,” Fernandez said. “I didn’t touch the gun at all.”
ABC13 reached out to Sig Sauer for comment via email, but as of late Monday, there was no response.
For updates on this story, follow Tom Abrahams on Facebook, X and Instagram.
Copyright © 2025 KTRK-TV. All Rights Reserved.