San Antonio cop ‘suspended indefinitely’ for taking guns home from buyback program – The Firearm Blog

According to reports from San Antonio, Texas, one of the city’s police officers is “suspended indefinitely” after taking home firearms from a so-called “buyback” event. According to an article by Emilie Eaton, a writer for the San Antonio Express-News, Officer David Mahula was suspended indefinitely on May 9 for violating the police department’s administrative rules — he was essentially fired, Eaton says.

Gun buybacks @ TFB:

The incident that sparked an internal department investigation appears to have been an incident in November 2023 when Mahula was working at a gun buyback organized by City Councilman John Courage. The buyback allowed citizens to turn in their guns and receive a HEB gift card in return.

A Councilman Courage employee reported that Mahula placed firearms in his personal vehicle during the repossession. Here is how KSAT describes the aftermath of this incident:

According to the records, during an interview with investigators a few weeks later, Mahula admitted to asking several citizens if he could buy or have their weapons instead of turning them in.

Mahula said there were “no interested parties.”

Records show that nine boxes of ammunition were found in Mahula’s personal vehicle.

According to the records, Mahula told investigators that he kept the surrendered ammunition to destroy it at the shooting range.

According to the records, he also told investigators that he had placed two World War II rifles and a pistol in his personal car to “secure” them and to separate weapons of potential historical significance.

But things got worse for Mahula from there, KSAT reports. Naylor said the guns he saw Mahula take were not the ones Mahula said she took home from the repossession. The testimony of a citizen who turned in two guns at the repossession also contradicted Mahula’s account – those shotguns were never found. KSAT reports that dashboard camera video shows Mahula putting a gun in his own car, then another gun in a colleague’s patrol car, and then in her personal car.

One of the firearms lost during the buyback was a World War II pistol.

According to KSAT, two other police officers working with Mahula on the buyback asked him about the whereabouts of the surrendered World War II pistol. Internal Affairs records include these officers’ descriptions of the incident:

“One of these officers reported that Officer Mahula responded to their questions by placing a finger to his lips, and the other officer reported that Officer Mahula made a facial expression that the officer interpreted as ‘be quiet.’ Both officers stated that Officer Mahula later showed them a U.S. government-issued Colt pistol in a case/holster similar to the one seen in the COBAN video.”

According to Express-News, Mahula has filed an appeal denying the allegations made to the supervisory authority and has requested a mediation hearing to get his outstanding wages and benefits paid.