Assignment task:
You are a death investigator who has been called to the scene of a shooting. There is a male subject, deceased, and laying on the floor with a .38 caliber revolver by his right hand. You examine the body and find one gunshot wound to the head, that you determine is a contact wound, and one gunshot wound to the right foot, that you determine is not a contact wound. You do, however, see some indications that it is not a long range wound and was most likely inflicted by the deceased himself. You are confident that this is a suicide. The police chief wants to know how you can tell that the head wound is a contact shot and the foot wound is not a contact shot? He wants you to explain what you looked for in determining your conclusion? Explain to the chief what you expect a contact wound with a large caliber handgun to look like; what characteristics would you expect to find in such a wound? If the foot shot was fired by the deceased, but was not a contact wound, what would you expect to find relative to the foot wound? The chief is anxious to hear what you have to say!