A change in the direction of the wound channel in the case of the combined injury inflicted by a shot from the 9.0 mm Makarov pistol

Abstract

The authors present an example from the expert practice demonstrating the influence of such factors as the properties of the ammunition fired from a weapon (including its weight, size, shape, and speed) as well as the anatomical features of the body tissues being affected on the mechanism of formation of a gunshot wound in the human body. The investigation of the suicide of subject P. has demonstrated the penetrating bullet wound of the neck and the head. The entrance wound was located at the anterior neck surface and the exit one in the left half of the occipital region. The examination of the cranial bones revealed perforating fractures of the cribriform and occipital bones. A specific feature of the case under consideration was a change in the bullet direction during its passage through the cribriform bone that made up the internal osseous barrier. A result the initially vertical wound canal turned into the horizontal one within the cerebral cranium and looked on the whole like a zigzag line. The present observation confirms the possibility of a marked change in the direction of the bullet's trajectory in the cranial cavity even when a 9.0 mm bullet fired from the Makarov pistol hits a relatively soft internal bone structure.