Stippling Gunshot

Last Updated on Tue, 01 Sep 2020 | Gunshot Wounds

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FIREARMS (HANDGUNS AND RIFLES)

Handguns and rifles fire ammunition or cartridges composed of a primer, gunpowder or propellant, and a bullet or projectile. When the firing pin of a weapon strikes the primer, the resulting explosion ignites the gunpowder. Gunpowder, vaporized primer, and metal from a gun may be deposited on skin and/or clothing of the victim. The presence and location of primer elements on the hands help to indicate who may have fired the weapon in question.

Gunpowder comes out of the muzzle in two forms.

1. Completely burned gunpowder, called "soot" or "fouling," can be washed off the skin.

2. Particles of burning and unburned powder can become embedded in the skin or bounce off and abrade the skin. The marks on the skin are called "tattooing" or "stippling."

The presence or absence of gunpowder on the clothing or skin indicates whether the gunshot was contact (loose or tight), close, intermediate, or distant.

Tight contact — All gunpowder residue is on the edges or in the depths of a wound. There may be searing or burning of wound margins, or reddening of surrounding skin due to carbon monoxide gas produced by burning powder. There is often tearing of the skin around the entrance wound (especially in head wounds) because of pressure buildup and blow-back of the skin toward the muzzle.

Loose contact — Gunpowder may escape from the barrel and be deposited around the edges of a wound.

Close range — Close range gunshot wounds occur at muzzle-to-target distances of approximately 6-12". Both fouling and stippling are present.

Intermediate range — These wounds occur at muzzle-to-target distances of approximately 12" to 3'. There is no fouling, only stippling or deposition of particles on clothing. Distant wounds — No fouling or stippling.

The amount of gunpowder emanating from the muzzle is different among weapons and the same weapon with different ammunition. A particular gun in question must be test-fired with the same ammunition if accurate comparisons are to be made.

Entrance and exit wounds are generally easy to differentiate. Entrance wounds tend to be circular defects with a thin rim of abrasion caused by a bullet scraping and perforating the skin. Entrance wounds of the face can be quite atypical appearing because the surfaces are not flat.

Exit wounds may be circular like entrance wounds, but they are more often irregular in shape. They may be slitlike or have ragged edges. They do not have a rim of abrasion like entrance wounds unless a victim's skin is pressed against another object. This is called a "shored" exit wound. Skin around an exit wound may also be discolored because of underlying bleeding in the soft tissues.

The scene must be examined for bullets and cartridges. Bullets may be under the body or caught in clothing after exiting the body.

figure 6.1 Firearms take many lives each year. All informa -tion from both the scene and the wounds must be gathered in order to determine both the cause and manner of death. This man appears to have committed suicide. His gun was next to him on the couch. The wound (arrow) must be examined and investigation needs to take place in order to determine if his death is consistent with suicide.

figure 6.1 Firearms take many lives each year. All informa -tion from both the scene and the wounds must be gathered in order to determine both the cause and manner of death. This man appears to have committed suicide. His gun was next to him on the couch. The wound (arrow) must be examined and investigation needs to take place in order to determine if his death is consistent with suicide.

Grooues

figure 6.3 "Lands and Grooves" on the inside of handguns and rifles give the bullet a better trajectory. All bullets fired from the same gun can be matched to each other and to the gun because of these markings.

figure 6.2 The cartridge used in guns and rifles have a projectile, gunpowder, and the primer which ignites when the firing pin strikes the base of the cartridge. A gunpowder residue test checks for the presence of primer.

figure 6.4 Gunpowder exits the muzzle in two forms. 1) completely burned powder (soot or fouling) and 2) burning and unburned particles (stippling or tattooing). The particles will travel further than the soot and will abrade the skin.

figure 6.6 Tight contact gunshot wound. There is more skin abrasion around the wound than in the previous case. All of the powder is in the wound.

figure 6.8 The wound on the chest matches the muzzle of the gun.

figure 6.7 The bright red discoloration around the entrance of this contact wound is due to carbon monoxide in the tissues.

figure 6.9 The wound on the left is a typical distant wound and the wound on the left is the exit. Not all exit wounds are irregularly shaped and larger than the entrance wound.

figure 6.10 Contact wound of entrance with powder on the edges and slight splitting of the skin. Skin splits are common in contact wounds of the head; the skin is forced back because of the pressure buildup occurring between the skin and the bone of the skull.

figure 6.11 Women do shoot themselves in the head. See next photo.

figure 6.13 This is a very explosive contact wound of the skull from a large caliber gun. All of the powder is in the depths of the wound.

figure 6.12 There are extensive lacerations around the wound. This is typical of a large caliber bullet. Notice the powder around the edges.

figure 6.14 This contact wound of entrance with lacerations is larger than the exit wound. See next photo.

figure 6.15 The exit wound is smaller than the entrance wound.

figure 6.16 This loose contact wound has a pale area (arrow) where the skin fold of the neck blocked out the powder.

figure 6.18 Opening her mouth reveals the powder from an intraoral gunshot wound.

figure 6.17 This woman died of a gunshot wound; however, no entrance site was seen. See next photo.

figure 6.19 This was the previous woman's partner. They shot themselves in the mouth rather than be taken into custody. The black pigment is obvious on the tongue and on the roof of the mouth.

figure 6.20 This is a contact gunshot wound of the mouth.

figure 6.21 Splits of the skin around the mouth may occur in intraoral gunshot wounds. Notice the spectacle hemorrhages from skull fractures caused by the gunshot wound.

figure 6.22 This intraoral gunshot wound caused enough pressure buildup in the cranial cavity to fracture the skull and lacerate the skin of the head. The large laceration is not the exit wound.

figure 6.23 Loose contact gunshot wound of the abdomen. Suicide.

figure 6.24 This gunshot wound to the head has abundant soot around the wound. The wound is then washed to check for stippling. See next photo.

figure 6.25 The wound has been washed and there is stippling. This indicates a close range gunshot wound because both stippling and fouling are present.

i ' m figure 6.26 This is an unusual close range suicide gunshot wound to the chest. The woman was wearing a T-shirt. See next photo.

figure 6.28 The gunshot wound on this forehead had both stippling and fouling. This indicates the gun was fired from less than a foot away from the victim.

figure 6.27 This is the shirt the woman was wearing when she shot herself. A distant shot would not have caused such a large hole.

figure 6.29 This is an example of an intermediate wound with stippling and no fouling. The weapon was between 1-3 feet away from the victim when it was fired.

figure 6.30 The man died from an intermediate gunshot wound. There was no fouling, only stippling. The main defect is in the middle of the eyelid while the edge of the eyelid was damaged at the same time. This indicates the man was shot while his eye was open.

figure 6.32 The arrow points to the central defect. There is no gunpowder. The skin is abraded below the entrance site, indicating the direction of the bullet toward the top of the photo.

figure 6.33 This is a gunshot wound through the mouth. The pressure caused splits of the skin around the mouth.

figure 6.34 This man was shot as he was climbing the stairs to his home. A distant entrance wound is in the chin (arrow). See next photo.

figure 6.35 The bullet exited under the chin and reentered the neck. See next photo.

figure 6.36 An X-ray of the neck shows two separate large opaque objects. The arrow points toward the jacket of the bullet. This is the most important object to recover because it has the rifling markings from the gun.

figure 6.37 These are fairly typical exit wounds with hemorrhage in the tissues around the central defect. However, an entrance wound may have a similar appearance.

figure 6.38 Bullets expend energy perforating the skin. It is not unusual to find the bullet just under the skin after it has passed through the body.

figure 6.40 The skull is made up of two plates of bone. When a bullet enters the skull a "beveled" defect will occur on the opposite side of the bone. In this photo there is an entrance on the left and an exit on the right.

figure 6.39 Gunpowder under the scalp may help determine the distance if no powder is seen externally. This is a contact wound.

figure 6.41 There is a gunshot wound of the skull in these skeletal remains. Notice the beveling on the inside of the skull, proving this to be an entrance wound.

figure 6.43 The arrow points to the exit wound which is much smaller than the entrance wound.

figure 6.44 This woman died from a bone fragment which penetrated the brain. The bullet entered the ear and scalp and then ricocheted off the skull and out the scalp.

figure 6.45 The photographs show the entrance (left) and the exit (right) of a gunshot wound to the head. The bullet passed through the head behind the jaw, but it did not enter the skull or directly damage the spinal cord. The woman died from damage to the spinal cord by the shock of the bullet as it passed through the head.

figure 6.45 The photographs show the entrance (left) and the exit (right) of a gunshot wound to the head. The bullet passed through the head behind the jaw, but it did not enter the skull or directly damage the spinal cord. The woman died from damage to the spinal cord by the shock of the bullet as it passed through the head.

figure 6.46 These are graze wounds from bullets.

figure 6.48 This is another example of a graze wound or a "gutter" wound. The bullet passed through the soft tissues of the chest before it entered the arm.

figure 6.50 The arrow points to an old gunshot wound of the brain.

figure 6.47 Powder (stippling) on the hand indicates the position of the hand at the time the gun was fired.

figure 6.49 A gunshot to the head causes a marked expansion of the brain material as the bullet travels through the brain.

figure 6.51 A man was shot in the chest and the bullet traveled through the liver (lower) and then through the heart (upper).

figure 6.52 The result of a contact high velocity rifle shot to the head in this suicide. Powder may be difficult to find, but it should be present at the entrance site.

figure 6.51 A man was shot in the chest and the bullet traveled through the liver (lower) and then through the heart (upper).

figure 6.53 Marked destruction of the head from an intraoral shot (suicide). Notice the EKG patches, neck brace, and tubes in the mouth from resuscitation attempts.

figure 6.54 The arrow points to the entrance wound in this woman's breast. She was shot with a rifle. The bullet went through the breast and reentered the body, making the larger defect.

FIGURE 6.55 The examiner may have to look at cases after physicians have attempted therapy. Here, an entrance site from a rifle wound has been removed by the surgeon. The wounds have been distorted by the therapy. See next photo.

r ji H • "L ■ * ■ ' m' *** , Ik ■ )■ ' * -j # . FIGURE 6.57 This officer is performing a gunshot residue test looking for the presence or absence of primer material on the decedent's hands. FIGURE 6.57 This officer is performing a gunshot residue test looking for the presence or absence of primer material on the decedent's hands. FIGURE 6.59 This discoloration on the collar around the hole is grease wiped off from the bullet. It is not from gunpowder.

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