TexasCHLforum.com

alexrex20 wrote:

WildBill wrote:I did notice the deformation of the bullet. I wasn't sure if it was the bullet or an artifact of the x-ray. Overall you did a great analysis of the crime. You should be a cop.

God help us if cops and/or investigators are allowed to "solve" crimes by analyzing a news article and viewing an x-ray...

Excaliber wrote:Okay, here are what I think are the relevant facts:

1. The victim is up on a ladder. We don't know how high, but he's working on a CCTV camera which is usually located out of reach to prevent vandalism. That usually puts the camera at a height of 8 - 12 feet.
2. The police believe the intended victim was standing on the sidewalk at street level.
3. Moments after the first shots the shooter charges into a store - at street level. So there's a strong likelihood he was at street level the entire time, shooting at people who were also at street level - not people on ladders. Of course, he could also just be a rotten shot.
4. If the shot had been a direct one from gun to victim, a round of that type would have fully penetrated the neck, assuming a full load, and the victim wouldn't now be worrying about treatment - or anything else.
5. The round did not penetrate the neck, a very narrow and tender part of the body. In fact, it barely made it beneath the skin.

and....

the one thing everyone missed so far.....

you're gonna kick yourselves......

6. If you look closely at the image of the projectile in the x-ray photo, you'll see that the base of the slug is deformed at the top and bottom edges.
7. Slugs don't deform like that in flight.
8.There's nothing in the victim's anatomy at that point that could have caused deformation of any part of the slug, let alone the base.

My hypothesis:

The projectile came from one of the 3 shots the victim heard just before he felt burning pain. It would take a second or two for this to register in the victim's mind because it came totally out of left field and his OODA loop would need to catch up. Of course the round could also have come from a 4th shot as well (people don't count shots accurately in these situations), but that's neither here nor there.

The slug lost most of its velocity when it impacted one or more surfaces (causing the deformation seen in the x-ray) before it struck and came to rest in the victim.

The intermediate impact was both fortunate - and not so much.

With it the projectile was slowed enough to just barely penetrate without doing major damage.

Without it, the shot quite likely wouldn't have struck him at all.

Does that makes sense to you folks?