San Diego

A UC San Diego police officer accidentally shot himself in the leg Wednesday while practicing at the shooting range at Miramar Naval Air Station.

Nate Floyd, 26, of San Diego was in good condition at Scripps Memorial Hospital in La Jolla, a hospital spokesman said.

Floyd shot himself once in the right thigh with his Baretta 9-millimeter handgun at 10:30 a.m. when the gun discharged as he was putting it in his holster, said Lt. J. Dyer of the UCSD campus police.

“It was a freak accident. It was fortunate the injury was not worse,” Dyer said.

The bullet was removed in the hospital’s emergency room, Dyer said, and Floyd was being held overnight for observation.

Floyd, who joined the campus police force in March, has extensive firearms training, as do all campus officers, Dyer said. Wednesday’s incident was the first time a campus officer had been involved in an accidental shooting, he said.

The shooting range, leased by the Navy base to the San Diego County Sheriff’s Department, serves as a practice and training facility for area law enforcement officers.