Pretty smart. Once the gun is destroyed, even an assessment that the gun was in fine working condition can be challenged very successfully since some sources of malfunction can be very subtle and cause problems very infrequently.
My guess would be that the trigger was pulled while a round was in the chamber and the gun "malfunctioned" by firing. Chalk up another statistic for the anti-gunners to use against the Second Amendment.
You may be right, but his story checks out with the way most .380's work. Most, but not all, are cheap Saturday Night Specials. Most utilize a 'blowback' action which is prone to fire on impact or being dropped.
Regardless, he did not have control of his weapon. Either he had not properly unloaded it or, instead of keeping it concealed, he was playing with it in his office when he dropped it.
Either way, negligent discharge.
If he replaces it, I hope he gets something a bit more serious, that .380 was more than likely to just piss off a bad guy.
Yeah, he pulled the trigger accidently and the pistol fired. Then due to his surprise he didn't have a good grip on the weapon, causing the weapon not to chamber the next round due to a loss of energy in the slides movement needed to complete the chambering of the next round.
That means he screwed up six ways to Sunday and blamed it on a bad ejector and asked the police to destroy the evidence for him.