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Rather strange result in a gunfight
A perp gets into a close-range gunfight with a citizen, and the citizen shoots him between the eyes with a 9mm.
Legal question that arises: in prosecuting the perp, can prosecutors make him undergo surgery to remove the bullet, so that it can then be shown to have been fired by the defender's gun?
I always favored the bigger calibers, and thought of the 9mm as a .45 "set to stun," but this is rather bewildering. He takes a 9mm in the forehead, and is left with a black eye and a knot on his head.
Comments
Aren't all criminals hard-headed? (So sorry for that joke, I couldn't resist)
Posted by: dave at December 21, 2006 11:31 PM
it would be highly interesting to know the brand and type of ammo that was used. low-power or not, 9mm luger at short range would normally be expected to go deeper than that.
Posted by: Nomen Nescio at December 22, 2006 06:26 AM
True, nomen, I suspect the round was a ricochet or entered his [hard] head after passing through some other obstacle. Complain about 9mm all you want, this is NOT typical of 9mm. And after reading the story it appears this was not really a "close-range gunfight."
It appears that if PC exists, the State ought to remove the slug. This isn't that different than requiring the taking of a blood sample to test for alcohol after an accident, after all.
Posted by: me at December 22, 2006 07:25 AM
I'm curious if this is worth all the legal trouble. I think we've all read enugh that states that ballistic fingerprinting isn't conclusive data, and approx 9mm sized projectiles are EXTREAMLY common. Will the ballistics expert be able to tell the exact calibur and grain weight of the object?
In the end I can't see how they could tell that he had been shot by a 9mm Luger, or a 9mm Markarov, or a .380 Auto, or a .38 Special. Let alone what exact gun he was shot with.
Maybe if he was using a name-brand bullet, the jacket or other structures (like the central post of a Hydra-shok) could be identified. Still I would doubt that a high-end 9mm only did this to the man....
Posted by: Weerdbeard at December 22, 2006 08:35 AM
Regardless of why that round was going so slow (or the targets skull is so thick) ballistics most often is used to eliminate suspected weapons rather than confirm bullet origin. At least that is my understanding.
If the round has right spirals from the rifling but the barrel has left rifling, wrong gun, for example.
Posted by: Fodder at December 26, 2006 08:45 AM