Shooting Incident Reconstruction

Lucien C. “Luke” Haag is a former Criminalist and Technical Director of the Phoenix Crime Laboratory, with over 53 years of experience in the field of criminalistics and forensic firearms examination. He is the author of the 1st edition of the book, Shooting Incident Reconstruction, 2005 and co-author of the 2nd edition 2011. Presently he is an independent forensic consultant with his own company, Forensic Science Services, Inc., that provides criminalistics services to prosecutors, public defenders, private attorneys, law enforcement agencies, insurance companies, educational institutions and private individuals. Luke Haag has a Bachelor of Science degree in chemistry from the University of California at Berkeley with subsequent forensic training at California State University at Long Beach, Indiana University, Arizona State University, the FBI Laboratory, the FBI Forensic Training Facility, and course work in Forensic Microscopy from the McCrone Institute. In addition to Distinguished Membership status in the AFTE and the California Association of Criminalists, he is a member of the SWAFS, the AAFS, an Associate Member of ENFSI and past board member of the International Wound Ballistics Association. He has authored and presented over 200 scientific papers, most of which have dealt with various exterior and terminal ballistic properties, effects and behavior of projectiles. His primary area of special interest is the reconstruction of shooting scenes and incidents.

1. INTRODUCTION 2. THE RECONSTRUCTIVE ASPECTS of CLASS CHARACTERISTICS and a LIMITED UNIVERSE 3. IS IT A BULLET HOLE? 4. SOME USEFUL REAGENTS and THEIR APPLICATION 5. GUNSHOT RESIDUES and PROXIMITY TESTS 6. PROJECTILE PENETRATION and PERFORATION 7. PROJECTILE RICOCHET 8. THE PRINCIPLES of “TRAJECTORY” RECONSTRUCTION 9. THE SHOOTING OF MOTOR VEHICLES 10. TRAJECTORIES in HUMAN BODIES 11. TRACE EVIDENCE CONSIDERATIONS ASSOCIATED WITH FIREARMS EVIDENCE: EVIDENTIARY and RECONSTRUCTIVE SPECTS 12. CARTRIDGE CASE EJECTION and EJECTION PATTERNS 13. TRUE BALLISTICS: LONG DISTANCE SHOOTINGS and FALLING BULLETS 14. SHOTGUN SHOOTINGS and EVIDENCE 15. ULTIMATE OBJECTIVES, REPORTS and COURT PRESENTATION APPENDIX