Pasadena Cops Play With Fire, One Gets Shot in Parking Garage Mishap

What happens when police officers treat loaded firearms like props in a game of cops and robbers? In September 2025, Pasadena PD got an answer nobody wanted when a routine moment of horseplay in the department’s parking structure went dangerously wrong.

The incident, captured on dashcam and publicly released this week, shows two officers standing in front of a police vehicle when another cruiser pulls up. One of the waiting officers quick-draws his gun and points it at the approaching driver in what was clearly meant as a joke. The driver, out of frame but undeterred, decides to respond in kind—pulling his own weapon. Here’s where the punchline turns dark: his gun goes off accidentally, sending a round through the windshield and into the arm of the officer who started the whole thing.

Police Chief Gene Harris didn’t mince words in his response, calling the shooting“unsafe and out-of-policy horseplay involving loaded firearms.”The injured officer has since recovered, but the damage to department credibility is harder to quantify. This wasn’t some tragic accident in the field—it was recklessness in a secure facility with all the time in the world to make better choices.

What makes this story particularly troubling isn’t just that it happened, but that it took nine months for the department to go public with dashcam footage. The LA County District Attorney’s Office joined the investigation, and Pasadena PD has handed out disciplinary measures, though Chief Harris kept specifics close to the vest. Without knowing who faced consequences and how serious those consequences were, it’s hard to assess whether this incident truly moved the needle on firearm safety culture within the department.

The broader question lingers: if officers in a secured parking garage can’t resist treating loaded guns like joke props, what does that say about training, culture, and judgment at ground level? This wasn’t a split-second tactical decision under pressure—it was a choice made in the safest possible environment, and someone still got shot.