Would-be victim takes robber’s gun, fatally shoots him in Exposition Park: LAPD

[The B]

Dude the real world isn't CSI. I know a few people in the field and I asked them and they said no they'd never check any of that if the bad guy was dead and the living witness was the good guy.

this, more or less

these cases where police bust out extremely expensive, extremely trained forensics experts AND go through all of the trouble and cost to do deep dive forensics are few and far between. departments do NOT do CSI style investigations unless they A) have access to that kind of tech (most departments do not- especially in the era of DeeFund) and B) are really, really suspicious. it is, in fact, still pretty easy to get away with murder in this day and age - just STFU.

im of course not advocating anyone murder anyone, or anything remotely close to it.

all of that said, you dont get to pick whether your case gets extra scrutiny or not. so if anything about your particular story makes any of the investigators involve suspicious, they may very well make the call to their state's crime lab or even the FBI for a more enhanced forensic investigation. its not like the technology doesnt exist, its just a finite resource that only gets used when appropriate.

anyway, just came to agree w Gunbuggy - for some reason this broad public misperception that CSI style forensic investigation is common and endemic is annoying to me. sure, itd be nice if we truly did employ those kinds of resources for every serious crime.... we do not.

ETA - by "we" i mean society. that read like i was saying "we," "me," "im a cop." i am not.

 

[OldBroad44]

Thanks @The B . Interesting perspective.

 

[pharmseller]

My degree is in psychology.

Ah, the "Do you want fries with that?" degree.

 

[EHJ]

Since we're all just spit ballin' here...

Milk destroys DNA testing accuracy/results.

When Jamal Khashoggi was murdered by the Saudi's in their embassy (and cut up into pieces) there were lots of photographs of a cleaning service wheeling in a half dozen crates of milk jugs and supplies. I knew then what had really happened.

A year later - everyone knew.

Audio transcripts of Jamal Khashoggi’s murder revealed

Turkish newspaper publishes detailed transcript of Saudi hit squad in the final moments of journalist’s assassination.

www.aljazeera.com

 

[nobamaplease]

This thread brings up a question that's been on my mind for a while. Again, strictly hypothetically, suppose you had a semi-auto pistol like a 1911, and you had left bullets from it in a very incriminating place (e.g. a dead body). What's to prevent you from removing the barrel from the pistol, installing a used barrel from another 1911, running a .5" drill bit down the old barrel to destroy the rifling, and then booking a fishing trip on a party boat where you gently slip the old barrel over the side while out at sea? Is there a matching serial number on a 1911 barrel, or any other semi-auto with a removable barrel? Asking purely hypothetically for a friend who's a murder mystery writer.

Need to replace the firing pin too if u want to be complete, they leave identifying marks also.

 

[EHJ]

Pretty sure this powder identification method (taggants) never really just... disappeared.

'Taggants' In Gunpowder Might Have Helped Identify Bombers

The Boston bombing probe might have been helped if the explosives were marked with microscopic identifiers called taggants. But the technology has long been off-limits, thanks to the National Rifle Association and its industry allies.

www.npr.org

 

[OldBroad44]

Actually, most undergraduate degrees are "Do you want fries with that" degrees. Notable exceptions being engineering, computer science, education, hard sciences. These are working degrees. The undergrad degree in ed is a working degree for teaching K-12 school. Most degrees in subjects like history or English are really only good for going on to get a PhD to teach college in those things and there are few jobs teaching college history or English. And even most of those jobs are adjunct positions these days, which are really exploitative jobs that often work out to below below minimum wage if you do an even marginally adequate job at them and have no possibility of tenure or advancement. Most people interested in art (except advertising) or music get their degrees in other things because there are approximately no jobs available. And this situation is nothing new. Back when I was doing my Phud in Genetics/Biology at Harvard, a common saying among Harvard students was "A Harvard degree and a dime will get you a cup of coffee." Another was "A Harvard degree and a quarter will get you on the subway." These sayings dated from when coffee only cost a dime, and the subway only cost a quarter, which had not been true for many decades. And among seekers after advanced science degrees in general, a joke was "BS means bullsh!t. MS means more of the same. PhD means piled higher and deeper." Another was "How is a grad student like a mushroom?" Answer is "Both are kept in the dark and fed horsesh!t." That was back when only about 20% of people got undergrad degrees. And tuition was way lower. And most students did not need to go into debt to get an undergrad degree. I think our society puts way too much emphasis on college degrees and way too little on job training for electricians, plumbers, carpenters, etc. College is getting to be less and less useful for more and more people.

 

[OldBroad44]

Need to replace the firing pin too if u want to be complete, they leave identifying marks also.

Need to replace firing pin only if you left brass lying around. If you're a revolver shooter you probably didnt. And in mystery novels the bad guys sometimes pick up their brass. Or have a device on the gun that catches it. Is there any such thing?

 

[sobo]

Pretty sure this powder identification method (taggants) never really just... disappeared.

'Taggants' In Gunpowder Might Have Helped Identify Bombers

The Boston bombing probe might have been helped if the explosives were marked with microscopic identifiers called taggants. But the technology has long been off-limits, thanks to the National Rifle Association and its industry allies.

www.npr.org

Welp, the article was from NPR... and it contained quotes from David "Waco" Chipman... So, pretty much, a collection of horsesh!t...

Color me jaded...

 

[EHJ]

Welp, the article was from NPR... and it contained quotes from David "Waco" Chipman... So, pretty much, a collection of horsesh!t...

Color me jaded...

Oh the article is pure bullschit, agreed. It's the tech I remembered from years ago that proved itself...
NRA and manufacturers resisted... and it just all... 'went away...'

It was like microstamping powder...


This was over 20 years ago...

NRA-ILA | Taggants And Gun Powders

A congressionally-mandated study concluded that taggants or markers in black and smokeless powders were unfeasible and of uncertain value.

www.nraila.org

https://www.princeton.edu/~ota/disk3/1980/8017/8017.PDF

 

[Camelfilter]

...Or have a device on the gun that catches it. Is there any such thing?

Not for a regular carried semi auto handgun, that I know of. Other than a plastic bag.

Multiple types and styles for rifles, as well as newer braced pistols (AR type as an example). Some are pretty handy actually.

Been using brass goats lately, pretty nifty.

AR 15 & Gun Accessories, AR 15 Attachments, Tactical Brass Catcher

Brass Goat is a revolutionary AR15 brass catcher designed to collect fired ammo from the AR15 firearm. Our unique 2-piece design allows you to use just the deflector, or the deflector and hopper together, based on your needs. Our proprietary mounting bracket easily snaps onto the lower receiver...

brassgoat.com

 

[Cavedweller]

we don't have buzzards in the Lewis River Valley

some turkey vultures, but they seem only interested in road kill

Different names for the same bird:

"The word buzzard is used by North Americans to refer to this bird,"

Turkey vulture - Wikipedia

en.wikipedia.org

 

[ZigZagZeke]

Ah, the "Do you want fries with that?" degree.

I also have an AA in engineering and 4 journeyman cards. Worked in steel mills and power generation for 30 years as an electrician, instrumentation and control technician, industrial metering technician, and the last 12 years as a systems administrator using specialized applications to read and analyze data from 1 million electric meters every 15 minutes, 24/7. Yes, I would like fries with that.

 

[pharmseller]

I also have an AA in engineering and 4 journeyman cards. Worked in steel mills and power generation for 30 years as an electrician, instrumentation and control technician, industrial metering technician, and the last 12 years as a systems administrator using specialized applications to read and analyze data from 1 million electric meters every 15 minutes, 24/7. Yes, I would like fries with that.

I have an English degree.

I win.



P

 

[The Heretic]

-figuring out who brought the gun that fired the killing shot to the fight would be high on the priorities for the forensics guys.

It is harder to find fingerprints on a gun, especially the grips, than most people think from watching TV - then there is all the messy prints from struggling with the criminal. Forensics isn't as straight forward simple as is shown on TV.

The main thing would be not having any kind of way that the gun could be traced to you - that would be more difficult today than anything else.

Then there is always the issue of there being the ubiquitous smartphone video taken during the struggle by some bystander and later produced after you have claimed the criminal had the gun.

 

[The Heretic]

I'm not cut out to be a mastermind bad guy either. Especially a spy. Whenever I've tried to read a spy novel I end up not knowing who the spy was even after I finish the novel. Pathetic. If I had, in my young broad days, ever been recruited to be a spy for our side, I woulda had to say no on the grounds that I would probably end up working for the other side by accident. And I suppose my lousy memory and inability to remember names and faces wouldn't help much either.

Ditto - for me it is also a matter of luck. E.G., when I was drinking in the HS parking lot on the last day of HS, and we had all thrown our bottles/cans onto the track, the vice principal came out and everybody scattered. Except me, I though I would play it cool and innocent like and calmly walk into the school. The VP grabbed me, smelled my breath, and then expelled me from school, but also made me stay during the week we were supposed to be off while the rest of the grades attended school. He did that because I would not rat out anybody else. My parents were pissed.

For me, if something bad can happen to me, it does, especially if I try to not get caught at it. So I try to not do those things anymore, and if I do get caught I don't try to lie about it or otherwise escape the consequences. In the case of shooting someone though, I would get a lawyer before saying anything to the police.

 

[osprey]

Two words, wood chipper. Oh you betcha yeah!

 

[po18guy]

Why all the fuss? Just shoot and call 911. If LAPD ever arrives, you can claim racism/sexism/homophobia/mean tweets, whatever they use to get off these days.

 

[American123]

I have an English degree.

I win.



P

Me too, what did you do with yours?

 

[pharmseller]

Me too, what did you do with yours?

Worked as a manager for K-mart for a few years then went back to school for an MBA.

Now I sell drugs.