Jim Cirillo on Letting Students Leave Class With Unloaded or Dummy Weapons

Once I had to confront a guy with a machete when I was a rookie cop in the 2-3. I didn’t know I approached him with an empty revolver. What had happened was, we had done indoor training at the armory range. After we fired, the dumbass sergeant made us holster, sent us out, never put us up on the range, and made us reload. I forgot all about it. I walked around for a week with a gun with empty shells in it. Then I got this call, a man with a machete in the basement, and I went in after him. Him and another guy were having words, and this guy said he was gonna cut him with the machete, cut his head off, whatever, and he sees me and I have my totally empty gun and I didn’t know it. I pulled my gun and I says, “Drop it. Drop that or I’m gonna shoot” And he dropped it, and I locked him up. Then, you know when I found out I was unloaded? When I had to go to the outdoor range for the outdoor training and I says, “Holy shit, my gun’s empty, I don’t believe it.” You know, that idiot probably sent eight guys out that day with unloaded guns.

—Jim Cirillo, in Jim Cirillo’s Tales of the Stakeout Squad