In October 1990, Officer Edward Wise fired accidentally and grazed a man's head during an undercover drug operation at a Southeast Washington housing complex, according to police and court documents. Wise said he had been struggling with the man, Barry Braxton, who was unarmed. Braxton sued and collected a $55,000 settlement from the District.

Sabrina Whittle, who was Wise's partner, said in a recent interview that she and her partner were not taught to keep their fingers off the triggers of their Glocks unless they intended to fire.

"The most we had to go on was common sense," said Whittle, then a 21-year-old police rookie, now a security guard. "It was dark and late and we were scared. I know that, both of us being scared, he had his finger on the trigger. Obviously, [with] your finger on the trigger, you're prepared."

Wise, who is still with the department, did not respond to messages seeking comment.

In May 1991, an officer accidentally shot Kenneth McSwain, 18, in the back when the officer slipped while serving a search warrant in Northeast Washington, court and police documents show. McSwain, who was unarmed and was not charged with any crime, collected a $42,000 settlement.

In August 1991, an officer accidentally shot Stephen Wills in the chest during a drug bust in Southeast Washington, according to court and police documents. Wills, who was unarmed and was not charged with any crime, collected a $40,000 settlement.

Four officers were wounded with their own guns in 1992. Over and over, officers fired unintentional rounds in the locker rooms at their district stations, or at home while cleaning or unloading their guns, according to police reports.

Officers are told during training to avoid such accidents by being attentive to the Glock's unique, simplified design: An officer cleaning a Glock has to pull the trigger before removing the slide to get access to the gun barrel. In many other pistols, taking the magazine of bullets from the gun renders it unable to fire. But the Glock has no "magazine safety" – if an officer leaves a bullet in the chamber, the Glock will still fire if the trigger is pulled.

In March 1993, Officer Lakisha Poge fired a round through her bed while unloading a Glock in her apartment, a police report states. The bullet went through the floor and hit Glowdean Catching in the apartment below. Catching, who was wounded in both legs, has a suit pending against the District. Poge, who has left the department, could not be reached for comment.

"I submitted reports through channels and said, 'You have problems with this gun,' " former homicide branch chief William O. Ritchie, who chaired the department's Use of Service Weapon Review Board in 1993, said in an interview. "I talked to the union and said, 'There is a hazard here.' "

In January 1994, homicide detective Jeffrey Mayberry shot Officer James Dukes in the stomach at police headquarters. "I hear a loud bang and Dukes is slowly falling to the floor," Detective Joseph Fox, Mayberry's partner, said in a deposition. "Jeff jumps up and says, 'Dukes, I didn't mean to do it, I didn't mean to do it.' "

Dukes said in a recent interview, "He was playing with the weapon. This was the second time I had told [Mayberry] during that tour of duty not to point the weapon at me."

A lawyer for Dukes later said that Mayberry had been trying out a laser sight on his Glock when the gun went off. Mayberry denied that in a court proceeding.

Dukes, who took an early disability retirement because of his wound, was awarded an $880,000 judgment against Mayberry in D.C. Superior Court. But Dukes said he has been unable to collect any money, including $80,000 owed for his medical bills. Mayberry declined to comment.

Four days after Dukes was shot, Officer Juan Martinez Jr. accidentally shot his roommate, Frederick Broomfield, in the groin while awaiting dinner in their apartment, according to police and court records.

Martinez was unloading his Glock in his bedroom when Broomfield came in and asked Martinez how he wanted his chicken cooked. The gun abruptly went off.

"I looked down and I seen smoke coming from my crotch and then after that, you know, I looked at Jay and I said, 'Damn, Jay,' " Broomfield said later in a deposition. "Then my leg started shaking and I fell."

Broomfield, who nearly bled to death after the bullet pierced an artery in his groin, sued the District and Glock Inc. His attorneys compiled a voluminous case in D.C. Superior Court, marshaling gun experts who gave statements about the alleged dangers of the Glock and the deficiencies of the District's training.

In June, the District settled the case by paying Broomfield $797,500. Glock also settled, but a lawyer for Glock declined to disclose the amount. In court papers, Glock denied that its gun was dangerous or defective.

One factor that led the District to pay such a large sum was that Martinez had not trained with his Glock in more than two years. The department regulations requiring officers to visit the firing range at least every six months were not enforced through most of the 1990s.

"You get a factor like that in a case and you know your chances of prevailing before a jury are diminished," said D.C. Corporation Counsel John M. Ferren, whose office paid the settlement.

Martinez left the department for a reason unrelated to the shooting. He could not be reached for comment.

About the time that Detective Roosevelt Askew accidentally shot and killed an 18-year-old driver during a traffic stop in July 1994, then-Chief Fred Thomas publicly warned that lax firearms training could cost the department dearly. Thomas announced his intention to require all officers to comply with the semiannual training regimen or forfeit their weapons. But Thomas retired a year later and the lax training continued, documents obtained by The Post show.

A department committee examining the Glock in 1994 found some design shortcomings but concluded that the gun was "reliable." Still, the committee's report declared that "training status must be improved" because less than 50 percent of the force had complied with the semiannual qualification standard.

Accidents also continued in 1996 and 1997, but at a slower pace – dropping from a high of 27 in 1991 to eight last year. Although the numbers diminished, the tragic nature of the incidents didn't. In May 1996, Courtney Rusnak, the 3-year-old daughter of Officer George Rusnak, died after she apparently shot herself with her father's Glock in their District Heights home.

"It looks like she found the gun and started playing with it," Mark Polk, a spokesman for the Prince George's County police, said at the time. "The gun was fired once, and she was hit directly in the head."

In June 1996, Officer Terrence Shepherd shot and killed 18-year-old Eric Anderson as Anderson sat unarmed in his car at a routine traffic roadblock in Southeast Washington. Although Shepherd said he fired because he thought Anderson posed a threat, his captain testified that Shepherd told him at the scene that he had his finger on the trigger and the gun "went off." The shooting, the captain added, appeared to be accidental.

When an officer's gun discharges accidentally, the shooting is generally ruled unjustified by the department, a review of department records shows. Discipline can follow, but an officer is not typically subjected to severe discipline unless the accidental shot kills or badly wounds someone, or the officer lies about the shooting.

Of the 12 officers involved in the shooting cases detailed in this account, two were charged or dismissed: Askew was indicted and convicted of lying about his accidental shooting, and Shepherd was fired for negligent use of force. Four other officers have left the department. Six remain with the force.

By 1997, the safety issue had turned some members of the D.C. police union against the Glock, according to Robertson, the former union official. Several officials wanted to switch to the Sig Sauer, a more expensive gun with a heavier trigger pull.

"Several kids were killed here when they picked up their fathers' guns," Robertson said in an interview. "A 2-year-old can pick up the Glock and kill someone. It doesn't take much to fire the weapon."

The push to switch guns apparently died when Soulsby retired as chief last year. But Robertson still thinks it is a good idea.

"The only thing about the Glock is, once you start pulling on that trigger, there's no coming back," Robertson said. "You don't get a second thought with it."

Staff writer David Jackson, director of computer-assisted reporting Ira Chinoy, database specialist Jo Craven and researcher Alice Crites contributed to this report.