LIVERMORE – Gunpowder residue. A wound. Blood spatter. Victim’s clothing. The scene.
All of these factors help forensic experts determine how a person was shot, Dr. Fred Jordan, deputy chief medical examiner for the state, said Wednesday.
The Poland forensic pathologist spoke about gunshot wounds during a joint crime watch meeting of Livermore, Livermore Falls and Jay residents at the Lakeshore Function Room.
The presentation wasn’t for the queasy as Jordan, who was formerly the chief medical examiner in Oklahoma and served during the Oklahoma City bombing, showed gunshot wounds of victims, mostly from Midwestern states, none from Maine.
Jordan had tried to take out some of the graphic images, but the computer disc he had originally submitted for display was blank so he had to bring out his backup disc.
“It’s like anything else, it’s not as simple as it looks on television,” Jordan said of determining how a person was shot.
“Gunshot wounds are more difficult than you think,” he said.
Jordan said medical examiners work with police to help determine what type of weapon was used, the distance from which the person was shot, how the victim was shot, what type of bullet was used and so forth.
“As a medical examiner, I represent the victim,” Jordan said, just as the police and prosecutors do.
In his case, Jordan said, he helps police make good observations in a sound, reasonable way. One of the first things that needs to be done, he said, is recover all the trace evidence.
Jordan used a red laser light to show three gunshot wounds on an X-ray of a person and what looked like a fourth wound.
Jordan explained the different types of bullets, including hollow points that are designed to do a lot of damage. When that kind of bullet hits, it’s designed to spread out, spin and lose energy but not come back out, he said.
He showed examples of used bullets that were far from long and shiny as they are before they’re fired.
“We used to clean the bullets up, now we don’t,” he said, as he showed a bullet with victim’s blood on it. That protects the DNA for analysis to be done on it, he said.
Even ammunition not intended to kill, such as rubber bullets, can kill someone, he said.
Forensic pathologists look for a variety of factors when they’re investigating a gunshot wound, Jordan said, including the velocity of the bullet, the victim’s clothing, the bullet’s path and a temporary cavity caused by the bullet entering the victim.
When a bullet comes out of a gun barrel and goes into something, it bores its way in like a drill. The entrance wound is usually small but that depends on the weapon and bullet, and the exit wound is a lot bigger, he said.
The latest weapon he likes, he said, is the Taser gun, which shoots electrical barbs. This makes every muscle in the body tighten, he said.
He said it gets a situation under control, and the person and police don’t get hurt, Jordan said. However, there have been a few cases, he said, where a person with heart disease has a heart attack as a result.
Oklahoma police use them, he said. “We had good experiences with it,” Jordan said.
Comments are no longer available on this story