2019
Greg Laskowski
Nashville, TN
The purpose of this presentation is to educate the audience on the reconstruction of an officer involved shooting investigation from a defense examiner’s perspective in terms of: Reviewing case documents and photographs, working with other experts in forensic disciplines, examining evidence with restrictions imposed on an out-of-state examiner, examining the scene of the crime five years later, examining the scene of the crime five years later, the process of proving of disproving the defense’s hypothesis
In 2010, police officers working an undercover illegal drug sting operation engaged in a firefight with several suspects inside a residence. In a scene, reminiscent with the gunfight at the OK Corral, the participants engaged in close combat resulting in one officer killed and several wounded including an informant. The suspects in this case also suffered casualties with one deceased at the scene, and one mortally wounded. Two surviving suspects were charged in the case, one of them with capital murder as the result of the death of a police officer. The question posed was – Did the client of the attorney that hired this examiner fire the fatal rounds?
Based upon the analysis of the evidence, the examination of the scene of the shooting, and the expert opinions from practitioners in other disciplines it was concluded that the shooter did not cause the fatal gunshot wound to the police officer or the non-fatal gunshot wounds to the surviving officers and the informant. In face, none of the rounds fired by the defendant struck anyone. As a results of the work by this examiner the capital murder charges were dropped. The defendant plead to a charge with life in prison.