Forensic Files Season 1 Episode 2 -- Forensic pointers from "The Magic Bullet"
Author: Shane Lambert
The second-ever episode from the hit TV show Forensic Files was called "The Magic Bullet." The title refers to a stray bullet at a shooting range that killed a teenage boy even though he was sitting in the safety area. How that bullet entered the safety area was the subject of this program. This was just the second episode in the entire series, following after the series premiere.
"The Magic Bullet" was a lot more about physics than forensic medicine or small-scale crime-scene investigation. In fact, the size of the crime scene probably served to make the investigation of the bullet that killed Trey Cooley, the teenager that died, difficult to conduct.
If you watch this episode, then you can expect to learn about the following topics in forensics:
- Accident reconstruction
- Ballistics examination
- Forensic animation
Moreover, you can learn about the liability of businesses in relation to their patrons. Furthermore, there were some interesting tidbits of information regarding what can happen when handguns are modified.
This wasn't the absolute strongest episode in the series when it came to explaining crime scenes. For instance, the trajectory of the bullet that is examined involves the bullet glancing off of a ceiling. They didn't really explain why the bullet glanced off the ceiling instead of penetrating it. In fact, they just shrugged it off and said something to the effect of bullets doing funny things sometimes. That kind of disinterest is below the standard of series, in general.
I suspect the answer had to do with the angle of incidence in relation to the bullet's properties. Bullets have pointed ends that help them penetrate their targets. However, this pointed end wouldn't really come into play if a bullet hits something at a ten-degree angle or so. I think something to do with this caused the bullet to deflect instead of penetrate.
If the embedding above fails, then please comment and I will fix it. Go to Youtube to see this episode.
Show Spoiler
Trey Cooley was sitting indoors at a firing range. Suddenly, he fell to the floor from his chair and it was discovered that a bullet had entered his cranium. He didn't die immediately from this, however, it was an injury from which he would not recover.
What they found out was that the bullet had been modified from conventional bullets. It was therefore inferred that this was because it was part of a shooting competition. Not surprisingly, on the outer range of the shooting range, there was a shooting competition going on that involved hitting targets.
The safety features that were meant to block stray bullets from leaving this outer range came into question. It was noted that some of the features, like planks of wood, had gaps in them. However, there was a feature of the outer range called a "berm" that should have been a major failsafe. This "berm" looked like a mound that would prevent bullets from entering the building that Trey Cooley was in. It looked like a little hill that was placed between the outer range and the building that Trey sat in.
A bullet could not go through this hill. How did it go over this hill and then redirect downward into Trey's cranium?
In answering that, firstly, it was learned that during the target practice the shooters moved close to the target. This prevented safety features that were meant for long-distance shooting from coming into play. With the elimination of these safety features, moving close to the target thus created an angle that made for the possibility of an errantly shot bullet to be shot over the berm.
A shot that missed the ground-level targets and went over the mound happened, it was thought, because one of the competitors in the shooting competition double-shot. If he modified his gun, then it could cause a bullet to be released as his gun recoiled from an original shot. During this recoiling period, the gun would be pointed upward. Given his position relative to the berm, a bullet that was released during recoiling could have gone over the berm. Then, the bullet glancing off of a ceiling as it neared the safety area that Trey was sitting in, allowed it to come back down toward the Earth. It struck Trey and ended his life well before his time.
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