You, as the investigator, have been notified that you are to proceed to a location in a apartment complex (housing complex) where a shooting has occurred at around 7:30 p.m. As you arrive, you are met by a uniformed officer who advises you that the body is that of a male, approximately early 20’s, who has been shot and mortally wounded. His body lay on the bottom of the steps leading up to one of the apartments. The officer is holding 4 witnesses, with possibly many more available since you are told that many people who were in the area at that time observed the shooting. As the lead investigator, you are to begin your investigation at this time. It is now 7:50 pm (20 minutes later) and darkness is beginning to shadow the crime scene.



Your first task is to protect the scene and have the officer gather and hold any witnesses to the incident. As you move to the body, you observe that next to the body is a handgun with one spent shell casing found 3 steps above the body. The person who was quickly identified as the shooter is being held in the police car for questioning. The officer on the scene has removed a handgun from this individual and has placed it into an evidence bag. The scene is marked where this shooter stood and where the 2 shell casings were found. These shell casings were 5 feet from the bottom of the steps on the cement walkway (which leads up to the steps). 



Upon closer examination, you determine that there are three exit and three entrance wounds on the body. Realizing that only two shell casings from the shooter were found and that there were only two bullets fired from the weapon as determined by checking the actual weapon of the shooter, the scenario of the actual shooting has to be analyzed. 



You talk with the witnesses. The witnesses indicate the following:



•Mr. White said he heard 4 shots

•Mr. Green said he heard 3 shots

•Mr. Brown said he heard a bunch of shots maybe 4 or 5

•Mr. Blue said he heard 3 shots.

Each was insistent on what they heard and each would not change their viewpoint. Therefore, most heard three shots; however, it did not seem to fit in with the narrative described by the witnesses. Again, the shooter’s weapon had all but two bullets that were still in the weapon, and one bullet only was fired by the deceased.



As for the examination of the body, the deceased, upon closer inspection had:



•A gunshot entrance wound through the front upper right shoulder exiting 3 inches higher from the back of the body. This was determined by the size of the two holes observed, the front being smaller in size than the exit wound. 

•In addition, the deceased had an entrance wound on the back side of the left leg, approximately 8 inches above the knee, and an exit wound on the left front approximately 10 inches above the knee.

•Another entrance wound was observed on the left chest approximately 9 inches below the left shoulder and exiting from the left rear of the chest approximately 7 inches below the shoulder.

Examine this crime scene and determine what happened and how based on the information provided from the observation and from the witnesses’ statements.



Write a three to four (3-4) page paper in which you:



1.Provide an analysis of what you think occurred

2.Describe how it occurred and the rationale for your response.

3.Use the powperpoint presentations on entrance and exit wounds and the video to help build your argument.

PowerPoint Files :



•Entrance/Exit Wound PowerPoint

•Wounds Ballistics PowerPoint (Note: Some images depict actual gunshot wounds. If you are not comfortable viewing these images, contact your professor)

Video: