The latest Secret Service scandal has raised an unusual question: How does an agent manage to leave a stray bullet behind?
The issue comes up in the case of two senior supervisors removed from President Barack Obama’s protective detail, which began when one of the men allegedly left a Secret Service bullet in the room of a woman he met at the Hay-Adams Hotel bar in May.
According to two former Secret Service agents, the answer is straightforward: Senior supervisor Ignacio Zamora Jr. was likely attempting to clear a round from the chamber of his Service-issued Sig Sauer P229 semiautomatic pistol in order to secure it after joining the woman in her room.
The agency’s standard operating procedure requires that all armed agents carry their weapon with a fully loaded magazine of 12 bullets, along with a 13th round loaded in the chamber, the former agents said. There is no safety device on the weapons because they must be ready in case of emergencies, they said.
“In order to fire the gun, all you need to do is pull the trigger,” said one former agent, who has worked with Zamora. “He might have been trying to make the gun safe.”
One person who was briefed on the details of the case confirmed that Zamora had been attempting to secure the weapon after the woman expressed discomfort with it. She later asked him to leave, which he did before realizing he had left the bullet behind, the person said. His attempt to retrieve it alarmed hotel management, which contacted the Secret Service.
The former agent who worked with Zamora said the agency generally frowns on agents removing the bullet from the chamber because fiddling with the chamber could result in an accident. He said agents are given trigger locks to secure their weapons at home.
But another former agent, who also has worked with Zamora, said he and his fellow agents did not travel with their locks, which are bulky like a padlock and hang off the back of the trigger.
