A pen as an intermediate target becomes a secondary projectile

Abstract

The phenomenon of intermediate targets becoming secondary projectiles in gunshot wound cases has been well described in the literature [1,2]. However, cases involving intermediate targets within gun barrels are a rarity. When a bullet strikes a non-resistant intermediate target, assuming the main mass of the bullet is intact, it produces a single entrance wound with fragments of the intermediary target scattered around or within the entry wound. | C A SEThe case involves a 16-year-old man and his father, who was manipulating a 0.40 semiautomatic handgun to demonstrate how the weapon worked. The father had placed an ink pen in the barrel of the firearm and pulled the trigger to demonstrate how the firing pin worked, ejecting the pen out of the barrel. The son saw this and asked his father to launch the pen once again. The father placed the pen in the barrel and then pulled the slide back to reset the firing pin, unknowingly loading a bullet into the chamber. The weapon was discharged causing fatal injury to his son. The entire encounter was captured on in-home security cameras. | Autopsy findingsAutopsy findings revealed a single entrance wound in the left chest where a fully jacketed, mildly deformed 0.40 bullet was retrieved from the decedent's back. The wound track perforated the left ventricle of the heart, inferior left pulmonary vein, esophagus, and right pulmonary hilum and bronchus. Over the left abdomen, multiple scattered superficial abrasions were present along with a 7 × 1.5 cm Y-shaped patterned abrasion with central clearing of the