Chapter 22 - Magic bullet in alleged drive-by shooting

Abstract

This chapter explores and discusses a case study where, a young man, a recognized member of a gang, drove into the entrance of a hospital with his girlfriend in the passenger seat. She had been shot, according to the boyfriend, during a drive-by encounter with a rival gang. Although she was alive when admitted, she died within 24 hours from hypovolemic shock. She provided no information regarding the incident before dying. Analysis was predominantly with photographs, but a short time with the crime scene, the vehicle where the victim was shot, was arranged. Medical reports were requested and delivered after viewing the vehicle. The autopsy report was not provided for this case. Emergency room physicians were reliable in noting arterial damage in admission records because this represented the possibility of volume blood loss and imminent fatality. Essential information was immediately available from the bloodstain pattern evidence. The victim was not wearing a seatbelt when she was shot, proved by the bloodstain pattern. The most significant patterns seen in the vehicle were those on the passenger's window. The window was closed at the moment of the shot, as recorded in spatters, but opened soon afterward and again closed, as recorded in the wipes and swipes. The most important addition to knowledge of bloodstain patterns, however, was in identifying the gunshot-distributed impact spatter pattern on the headliner, which mimicked the appearance of a castoff pattern. This shows the importance of accurate identification of spatter patterns as opposed to labeling from memorized workshop exercise results as pattern match.