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Homicide

Murder -  Motives   Friendly Fire

Cleaning after a violent homicide in a residential or business environment takes time. Different viewing perspectives give rise to possible trajectories created by high velocity impacts. Without taking time to check for potential unforeseen's, problems remain behind following crime scene cleanup.

Homicides I've cleaned usually resulted from criminal intent. A Los Angeles crime scene cleanup follows intentional homicides in most cases. Rarely were these accidental. Every now and then an accidental homicide comes to my way.

The last accidental homicide, they are all shootings, occurred in 2008, in northern California. Two young men were celebrating the 21st birthday of the older of the two. By the end of the party the youngest of the two, an 18 year-old, lost a large piece of his head from an "accidental" gunshot to the head. During their party the two shared cigarettes, 2 magnums of wine, a Remington 44 magnum handgun, and stupidity.

Both participants knew each other as best friends, having grown up together in the same apartment complex. Both were seated in an apartment living room adjoining a kitchen, and within a few feet of the apartment's one door. The victim sat with his back to the apartment's living room wall, a few feet from a picture window on his left. The door to his right, and the shooter a few feet from his face set the scene for homicide. Allegedly they were "only looking at the gun" when it "went off." The deceased never gave the gun a second glance. (See my comments below on combat deaths and friendly fire.)

Figuring out what went where as the crime scene exploded with bio-debris took a few moments. This job's primary debris trajectory resolved itself within 2 feet. It remained fairly localized as a result. Shotgun blasts under the chin from the center of a bedroom contaminate entire vaulted ceilings, walls, and the floor. I call these "360 top-to-bottom." There's only one way to view such a shotgun wound. That's a 360 degree perspective. Anything less does not constitute crime scene cleanup.

The birthday gun's damage spread covered less than 45 degrees my tests showed. I tested for more. It wasn't there. I would have a short day.

As an accidental homicide, this shooting probably went down quickly as a plea for an involuntary manslaughter charge without hard time (12 months county time, 3 off for good behavior). For my money I'd say the gun and alcohol combination brought this murder into the malice aforethought judicial ring. Nobody but a fool and an idiot touches a gun while drinking or after drinking alcohol.

As it turned out the local police cleaned a good piece of the crime scene in their forensics work. As small departments go, these cops had it together. They took about a quarter of the carpet and carpet padding and cut about a 3X3 piece of drywall as evidence. The coroner's technicians were super too. A little hair and some frags in the wall near the door remained from the anatomical side of it all. Maybe small town people just do good work.

The apartment's operations' manager came in as I worked. His job included moving out those who could no longer move out. As a kindly act I shared my mattress removal technique to help him out.

He told me the story. He said the shooter's father gave the gun to the shooter the night before the homicide as a birthday gift. It turns out the operations' manager had no love for guns and now the loss of these two young men convinced him not to love guns. "Do you have a gun," he asked.

"I hate the damn things."

I worked through the rest and gladly walked out into the winter air and down the stairs when done. "At least this one didn't have a ton of print dust to clean," I recall thinking to myself.

Cleaning this homicide left me unnerved. I kept thinking, "What a waste." I drove slowly through the snow-packed apartment parking lot. The rest of my day crept along with a dull feeling tugging away at my mind. I hated this feeling and knew I let this simple crime scene shake me. "It's as bad as cleaning after a 13 year-old's suicide," I realized.

It's been over a year now. Now that I'm thinking about this crime scene I wonder what became of the shooter and everyone in his social circle, his web-like network of young adult gun enthusiasts. Will the shooter return to the apartment complex or move to anonymity?