The Analysis and Shooting Reconstruction of The Ricocheted Shotgun Pellet Wounds

Abstract

In this study, a 35 years old man was killed with the ricocheted shotgun pellets wounds from the asphalt road surface. The Public Prosecutor to define the ricochet point requested the ricocheted pellet pattern examination in two different ricochet distances. The ten ricochet tests were performed for at 2 meters (point A) and 1 meter (point B) from the target, and the pellet distribution and pattern area were calculated using the gauss method. Then, the test and autopsy results were compared in the pellet number, calculated pellet pattern area and ricocheted angle. Furthermore, the similarity of the pellet number and the pellet pattern areas were examined using the two-tailed Mann-Whitney U test. In this study, 81 pellets recovered from the victim's body and the distribution pattern of pellets area was 2134 cm2. At the ricochet point A, the average number of pellets on the target was 82.1 and the distribution pattern of pellets area was 2700 cm2. At the ricochet point B, the average number of pellets on the target was 132.6 and the distribution pattern of pellets area was 4928 cm2. According to the two-tailed Mann-Whitney U test, there was low-level similarity (p<0.05 level Sig. 0.023; z=-2.424) on the pellet pattern area between autopsy and the ricochet point A. However, as regards the pellet number on the target, there was a similarity (p<0.05 level Sig. 0.481; z=-0.808) between autopsy and the ricochet point A. Test results showed that the pellet ricochet occurred two meters from the victim.