Current Event in Forensic #2
Jessie Mobley
The morning of September 30, 2012 brought some unexpected events with it for a
group of motorcyclists in Winter Springs. Members of the Warlocks motorcycle club were
leaving to go on a charity ride when a shooting occurred in the parking lot of the local VFW
post. Two riders were killed and another one was taken to a medical treatment facility in critical
condition. All three of the men shot appeared to be members of the motorcycle club. The
Warlocks motorcycle club has a rough history with law enforcement. There were not any details
released about how many shooters, the caliber of weapon used, or if any arrests were made.
However witnesses claim to have seen people handcuffed and wearing motorcycle gear outside
of the VFW. (Breen, 2012)
This would prove to be a difficult crime scene. With the many people involved and the
large amount of outdoor space to work with crime scene technicians would need to work fast
to not loose evidence. The ballistics evidence collected in this case would be crucial to charging
and incriminating suspects. There could also (depending on the scene circumstances) be useful
blood spatter from the wounds and gunshot residue on the suspects. However the first thing
that a technician would need to do would be to document the crime scene with photographs.
This would include long, medium and close range shots. (Young, 2011) Also with a bigger
outdoor scene, if possible aerial photos could provide a good view to document the scene.
After the photographs have been taken establishing positional relationships of the
evidence, documenting the location, marking the evidence and showing up the evidence up
close you would need to collect the evidence. Each spent casing should (already be
photographed) then collected and placed in a coin envelope or a small plastic container.
(Young, 2011) This is an important step, because once you have the suspects weapon, a bullet
can be test fired and subsequently analyzed in comparison with the evidence items found at
the scene. Also the ballistics collected can be ran through the National Integrated Ballistics
Information Network or NIBIN. NIBIN can link one gun to multiple crimes and tell you if that
guns casings were found at another crime scene. Also because this was a gun crime and the
suspects may have been apprehended shortly after the crime, you can test the suspect’s hands
for gunshot residue (GSR). If the suspect has fired a gun recently their hands will have GSR on
them. (Young, 2011)
With this kind of scene there would also be blood spatter. The amount and appearance
of the blood would depend on many things, such as the caliber of the weapon used and the
distance the projectile travels before making impact. The pattern left behind after a gunshot
often appears in a cone shape and has mist-like qualities. This evidence may help establish the
sequence of events and tell investigators more about what has happened at the scene. (Young,
2011) Overall for this case, all the evidence collected would be important in the process of
prosecution of the suspects and to insure that investigators get the true story and all the pieces
to the puzzle.
Sources:
Breen , D. (2012, September 30). 2 dead, 1 hurt in biker shooting at vfw post in winter springs.
The orlando sentinel . Retrieved from
http://www.orlandosentinel.com/news/local/breakingnews/os-warlocks-biker-shooting20120930,0,7417132.story
Young, T., & Ortmeier, P. J. (2011). Crime scene investigation: The forensic technician's feild
manual. Upper Saddle River, New Jersy: Pearson.