On March 12, 2026, Letterkenny Army Depot confirmed the death of a soldier during training that morning. An investigation by Tasmin Mahfuz of WGAL, an NBC affiliate in Lancaster, Penn., has since revealed that Pfc. Krystofer Lopez (posthumously promoted to Specialist) was shot in the chest by an Army SIG Sauer M17 handgun.
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After speaking with Lopez’s parents, WGAL discovered that Lopez died on day one of firearms instruction.
“He said, ‘I got training tomorrow,’” mother Carmen Lopez told Mahufz. “That gun training tomorrow.”
Carmen and her husband Hector reportedly raised concerns with their son about the Army’s use of the M17 and M18 handguns. However, their son said he wouldn’t be using those weapons and put their minds at ease. Lopez served as a 31B, Military Police.
Although the Army would not disclose the nature of the training incident that killed Lopez, Carmen had a feeling as soon as the casualty notification detail pulled up to their house.
“Our son is dead,” she told her husband. “They shot our son.”
With the Army withholding details of their son’s death, citing the ongoing investigation into the event, Carmen and Hector spoke with the assistant U.S. attorney for the Middle District of Pennsylvania. They were told that there was no evidence anyone tried to kill their son. Rather, the question was if gross negligence led to their son’s death.
Over a month after Lopez was killed, his parents received their first real details.
An Army Criminal Investigation Division agent called them and said that Spc. Lopez was shot in the chest by a civilian contractor with an M17 handgun. The family recounted to Mahfuz that the CID agent said it was just Lopez and the civilian instructor in the MP training room when the incident occurred. Naturally, the family had questions: Why wasn’t Krystofer wearing protective equipment around live ammo? Why was there live ammo in an indoor setting? Where was everybody else?
Army CID refused to answer their questions. What the agent did say is that the M17 has been sent to a lab in Georgia to determine if it malfunctioned. While the investigation into Lopez’s death is ongoing and the government remains tight-lipped regarding the circumstances of the soldier’s death, another M17 incident occurred at Letterkenny that raises questions of accountability.
On May 29, 2021, an Army civilian at the depot drew his M17 with a Steamlight TLR-1 from the arms room, cleared it at the clearing barrel, inspected it, loaded a magazine, released the slide the load a round, and attempted to holster it in a Safariland. The Army Mishap Report notes that the M17 “would not go into the holster on the first or second attempt. On the third attempt the weapons went off and unintentionally discharged a round.”
To anyone who has carried a sidearm in a duty holster, this sounds fishy. If a pistol won’t go into a holster, there’s probably something wrong and you shouldn’t force it in. SIG Sauer has even cited obstructions in the holster as the cause of some reported unintended discharges of P320/M17/M18 pistols.
While the Army reports does not specify the circumstances of the failure to holster, it does note that the individual was certified on the equipment, weapon, and activity. Moreover, the civilian employee and a witness both state that his finger was not even near the trigger. The determination of a mistake and component failure are both redacted and the fate of the M17 is not mentioned.
Accidents boil down to three different sources: equipment, training, and operator. If the equipment is defective, if the training is insufficient, or if the operator is negligent, people can get hurt. Service members accept a certain level of risk when they raise their right hand and enter into the profession of arms. The military owes it to them to provide the best equipment and proper training on it.
Perhaps more so, the Army owes it to the family of Spc. Lopez to disclose the details and circumstances of their son’s death. If he was killed by the equipment, replace it. If he was killed by improper training, fix it. If he was killed by negligence, prosecute the individual.
SIG Sauer maintains that the P320 is incapable of firing without a trigger pull.
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