Shooting Incident Analysis and Reconstruction

Establishes the purpose of the course: helping investigators approach shooting scenes with a structured, evidence-driven mindset. Students are introduced to the importance of recognizing critical details, connecting evidence to action, and building clear, defensible conclusions.

Covers firearm categories, classifications, actions, components, accessories, caliber/gauge terminology, and common malfunctions. Emphasis is placed on how firearm operation, manual manipulation, trigger pulls, malfunctions, and shooter knowledge can inform reconstruction questions.

Explains ammunition terminology, cartridge and shotshell components, ignition systems, magazines, cylinders, projectile construction, and common bullet designs. Students learn how bullet design and terminal performance influence defects, wound behavior, penetration, fragmentation, and reconstruction findings.

Introduces internal, external, and terminal ballistics in practical investigative terms. Students learn what happens from trigger pull through muzzle exit, how bullets behave in flight, and how impact with target materials affects deformation, destabilization, deceleration, fragmentation, wound cavities, and recovered evidence.

Examines primer residues, propellant residues, metallic residues, detection methods, limitations, and range-of-fire estimation. The module emphasizes what GSR can and cannot prove, how residue patterns may support muzzle-to-target distance, and why timely documentation and collection matter.

Focuses on systematic shooting scene processing, safety, evidence recognition, photography, written documentation, evidence collection, and chain of custody. Students learn why thorough documentation of firearms, casings, projectiles, bullet defects, biological evidence, trace evidence, and related materials is essential to later reconstruction.

Builds the working vocabulary needed to describe and interpret bullet impacts. Topics include target types and classes, trajectory vs. flight path, perforation, penetration, ricochet, entrance and exit defects, corresponding defects, keyholes, spall, leading edge, bullet wipe, lead-in marks, pinch points, cone fractures, secondary projectiles, terminus, and point-of-impact documentation.

Covers plate, tempered, and laminated glass behavior when struck by gunfire. Students learn how radial, concentric, cone, and dicing fractures may help determine point of impact, directionality, sequencing, and the importance of preserving fragile glass evidence before it is altered or lost.

Teaches practical methods for analyzing bullet defects to determine directionality, angle of impact, and reconstructed flight paths. Topics include the two-defect method, lead-in method, ricochet defects, horizontal and vertical angle components, movable targets, the three-point requirement, horizontal surface analysis, area of convergence, and area of origin limitations.

Explores the human body as a movable and dynamic target in shooting reconstruction. Students learn how wound tracks, body position, movement, survivability, autopsy reports, treatment reports, clothing, GSR, stippling, bloodstain evidence, and molecular ballistics may help determine reasonable or unreasonable body positions at the time of gunfire.

Brings the course concepts together into an objective reconstruction process. Students learn how to evaluate physical, forensic, medical, video, and contextual evidence through an unbiased lens; apply inductive and deductive reasoning; reduce bias; use linear sequential unmasking; develop and test hypotheses; segment complex events; and present supported findings.

Howard Ryan and James Molinaro walk through actual homicide reconstruction casework using redacted reconstruction materials. These case studies show how scene observations, wound paths, bloodstain evidence, GSR, cartridge casing locations, body position, movement, graphics, report writing, and courtroom explanation come together in real investigations.

A final knowledge check reinforces the major course concepts and confirms student understanding of key terminology, evidence categories, documentation practices, reconstruction principles, and practical investigative reasoning.