A Crime's Most Popular Accessory

      A typical morning routine would go something like this: your alarm goes off. You press the snooze button about three to four times before it registers in your brain that you have to go to work and participate in the real world in just a matter of hours. You go downstairs to make your coffee, maybe breakfast too, if you feel up to it. While you're drinking your first cup of coffee, you turn on the TV to the morning news. You find yourself noticing that it's always the same kind of stories; just different people, different places, a different day. Most of the headlines either involve politics or crimes. The crimes usually involve either a known or unknown suspect that murdered an innocent person. Most of the time, the victim was shot, and there was no given reason as to why the suspect shot them. This is where forensics comes in and CSI and police do everything they can to solve the crime. But the news never goes into intense detail about forensic evidence; just the basics and they only skim the surface of their findings. Even still, you finish up your coffee and then you precede the routine of getting ready for work because you’re used to hearing about these types of things even though they are so horrific.

[Image found google.com]

     In an article found on the Washington Post's website called, Authorities Search Area Where Kayaker Was Shot and Wounded On Saturday Night, dated back to April 14, 2014 and was written by Arelis Hernandez and Justin Jouvenal. They report on a shooting that took place on Anne Arundel creek. David E. Seafolk-Kopp was kayaking along the creek when a bullet grazed him. After many hours of being in pain in his kayak, he ended up making it back on land to receive medical attention. Fortunately, the shot was not fatal. The authorities that were spoken to after evaluating the crime, they believed that the shot was unintentional due to the bullet being fired from far away. The authorities also observed the wound and he bullet and narrowed it down to a particular pistol but they still had to do analysis and sent it to the lab for further testing.

[Image found on google.com]

     In this case, the bullet and the victim are the only two things they have to base their whole investigation on. This will certainly make things much more complicated given there were no witnesses and no one else around when the shooting occurred. I would start out by searching around the creek with search dogs and looking around for any bullet casings. Once the bullet was narrowed down to a specific type of gun, I would then try and see who has purchased this particular type of gun. However, this has its fair share of limitations. In most cases, guns that are used in crimes are stolen and there are no records of the people owning them. This is a huge reason why most crimes that involve guns are not solved because it’s extremely difficult to track down a criminal when you have no idea who you’re even looking for. 

Want to read the actual article? www.washingtonpost.com/local/crime/authorities-search-area-where-kayaker-was-shot-wounded-on-saturday-night/2014/04/14/6cfbde2e-c3f5-11e3-bcec-b71ee10e9bc3_story.html

Do you want to know more about matching up the bullets found on scene to a particular gun? Check out this website: www.exploreforensics.co.uk/how-can-bullet-be-idenitied-from-particular-gun.html


References: 

The Washington Post. Website. 2014. Accessed 6/19/14. www.washingtonpost.com/local/crime/authorities-search-area-where-kayaker-was-shot-wounded-on-saturday-night/2014/04/14/6cfbde2e-c3f5-11e3-bcec-b71ee10e9bc3_story.html

Explore Forensics. Website. 2014. Accessed 6/19/14. www.exploreforensics.co.uk/how-can-bullet-be-idenitied-from-particular-gun.html