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CNN Live Today
Ballistics Link Bullets in Ohio Shootings
Aired December 03, 2003 - 11:14 ET
THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.
THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.
DARYN KAGAN, CNN ANCHOR: Let's bring in our correspondent and former police detective Mike Brooks. He's in Atlanta. Mike, what have you been able to learn about the investigation?
MIKE BROOKS, CNN LAW ENFORCEMENT ANALYST: Well, Daryn, apparently before they were being linked by the bullet fragments and through ballistics. When a bullet passes through the barrel of a gun, whether it be a handgun or rifle, and most likely in this case it's going to be a rifle because of the long distances, it leaves distinctive marks, lands and grooves on the bullet fragment or pieces they were able to find. That's how they have been able to link these four together.
Now they say they know they believe the 12 are all connected. Now, one of the other things that that they're looking for is Kris said they're looking for bullet fragments out in the woods. But they're also going to be looking for shell casings. Because if there is a shell casing in the vicinity of where they believe the round was fired there are 5 different points of identification that ballistics experts can say came from this particular gun.
Now the lands and grooves that are left on the bullet fragment you can basically tell the make and model of the gun. And that's how they've been able to link the bullet that was used in the death of Ms. Knisley as well as the fragment taken from the school.
Now they also had laser kits that the experts can use to go out and look at the trajectory from where they believe some of the rounds were fired. And I'm sure that the experts out there -- and I'm hear they are using these kind of kits to say exactly the trajectory was fired and especially in the case where the man's window was blown out, he can give investigators the approximate location. They can go back look at the angle of the way it hit his windshield, where it impacted inside of van, go back. And that can also be very, very useful evidentiary information -- Daryn.
KAGAN: Mike, what about the challenges of this investigation? It's the start of deer hunting season, using guns. And this is hunting country. If you're looking for shells and bullets, you know, it's not a needle in a haystack, it's a haystack full of bullets.
BROOKS: It probably it is. And hopefully there's not a whole lot of snow cover there also. Right now it doesn't look like there is.
But, again, through ballistics, they can tell -- even if they have a small piece of fragment that they can compare to, they can go look at it under a microscope and say, This is the one that we can link with the death of Ms. Knisley or the other three shooting they've able to link to the same gun.
Again, with the lands and grooves very, very important information that hopefully they can use to maybe ferret out the other fragments they may find from some of the hunters who were there along the road now that hunting season has started -- Daryn.
KAGAN: Mike Brooks in Atlanta. Thanks, Mike. Appreciate it.
TO ORDER A VIDEO OF THIS TRANSCRIPT, PLEASE CALL 800-CNN-NEWS OR USE OUR SECURE ONLINE ORDER FORM LOCATED AT www.fdch.com
Aired December 3, 2003 - 11:14 ET
THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.
DARYN KAGAN, CNN ANCHOR: Let's bring in our correspondent and former police detective Mike Brooks. He's in Atlanta. Mike, what have you been able to learn about the investigation?
MIKE BROOKS, CNN LAW ENFORCEMENT ANALYST: Well, Daryn, apparently before they were being linked by the bullet fragments and through ballistics. When a bullet passes through the barrel of a gun, whether it be a handgun or rifle, and most likely in this case it's going to be a rifle because of the long distances, it leaves distinctive marks, lands and grooves on the bullet fragment or pieces they were able to find. That's how they have been able to link these four together.
Now they say they know they believe the 12 are all connected. Now, one of the other things that that they're looking for is Kris said they're looking for bullet fragments out in the woods. But they're also going to be looking for shell casings. Because if there is a shell casing in the vicinity of where they believe the round was fired there are 5 different points of identification that ballistics experts can say came from this particular gun.
Now the lands and grooves that are left on the bullet fragment you can basically tell the make and model of the gun. And that's how they've been able to link the bullet that was used in the death of Ms. Knisley as well as the fragment taken from the school.
Now they also had laser kits that the experts can use to go out and look at the trajectory from where they believe some of the rounds were fired. And I'm sure that the experts out there -- and I'm hear they are using these kind of kits to say exactly the trajectory was fired and especially in the case where the man's window was blown out, he can give investigators the approximate location. They can go back look at the angle of the way it hit his windshield, where it impacted inside of van, go back. And that can also be very, very useful evidentiary information -- Daryn.
KAGAN: Mike, what about the challenges of this investigation? It's the start of deer hunting season, using guns. And this is hunting country. If you're looking for shells and bullets, you know, it's not a needle in a haystack, it's a haystack full of bullets.
BROOKS: It probably it is. And hopefully there's not a whole lot of snow cover there also. Right now it doesn't look like there is.
But, again, through ballistics, they can tell -- even if they have a small piece of fragment that they can compare to, they can go look at it under a microscope and say, This is the one that we can link with the death of Ms. Knisley or the other three shooting they've able to link to the same gun.
Again, with the lands and grooves very, very important information that hopefully they can use to maybe ferret out the other fragments they may find from some of the hunters who were there along the road now that hunting season has started -- Daryn.
KAGAN: Mike Brooks in Atlanta. Thanks, Mike. Appreciate it.
TO ORDER A VIDEO OF THIS TRANSCRIPT, PLEASE CALL 800-CNN-NEWS OR USE OUR SECURE ONLINE ORDER FORM LOCATED AT www.fdch.com
