NCJ Number
215684
Journal
Journal of Forensic Identification Volume: 56 Issue: 5 Dated: September-October 2006 Pages: 730-736
Date Published
September 2006
Length
7 pages
Annotation
This study examined bullets, spent cartridges, and firearms involved in a police shoot-out with four suspects in a van who were fatally wounded.
Abstract
The test-firing experiments showed that the 42 firearms used by the suspects and the police were in serviceable condition and produced test bullets and cartridge casings with distinct rifling, firing pin, breech, extractor, and ejector marks. Only a few bullets that had rifling marks were matched to the firearms submitted, because the microscopic identifiable features of the rifling marks on most of the bullets were obliterated by their entry through the metallic shell of the van. Of the 157 cartridge casings, 153 were identified to their respective firearm using the firing pin, breech, extractor, and ejector marks on them. The remaining four 7.62 caliber casings (Soviet) were found inside the van without any marks to show they had been fired from a firearm. One of these four cartridge casings was found without its primer and had impact marks. Unburned propellant particles were found trapped inside its crumpled wall. In the other three cartridge casings, the primers were intact. Six 7.62 mm (Soviet) caliber bullets were without rifling marks. The study concluded that the bullets and cartridges without any evidence of having been fired from a firearm had not been fired. The distortions in some of the bullets and cartridges resulted from their having been hit with bullets fired into the van. This article lists the firearms evidence recovered from the van and describes in detail the conditions of the bullets and cartridge cases without any marks of a firearm. 5 figures