Young Man Suicide with a Powerhead

[Meatpie]

This young man committed suicide by inflicting a contact shotgun-type injury with a round of buckshot loaded into a “bangstick”. A bangstick is a weapon that can be used in hunting alligators or protecting oneself from sharks.

When the pipe-like end of the metal bangstick is rapidly thrust against a surface, it fires a single round. At the scene note the severe cranial injuries and surrounding environmental blood and tissue staining.

Also, note that although there was extensive trauma and immediate incapacitation, the weapon stayed grasped in the victim’s hands.

Despite the extreme amount of cranial destruction, careful and meticulous reapproximation of the calvarium, scalp, and facial tears allows for the demonstration and confirmation of a frontal entrance wound.

Reconstruction of the wound can be very important to determine particular wound characteristics in cases of alleged homicide.