Medicolegal Evaluation of Fatal Firearm injury Cases in Ethiopia: An Autopsy Study

Abstract

Gunshot wounds are commonly encountered in forensic practice. The courts quite often specifically need to know which firearm injury is entry and which is exit. Although the examination of a recent gunshot wound is often straightforward, the appearance of the firearm wound may be affected by factors like multiple firearm injuries, putrefaction, charring. The forensic practitioner sometimes faces difficulty when the entry or exit wounds present atypically like the absence of secondary effects of discharge, as in decomposed bodies, which are supposed to determine or be specific to entry wound. Sometimes feature like abrasion collar is seen at the exit wound or is present in both entry and exit wounds as in cases of shored exit wound. This study focuses not only on the typical features which determine the entry wound but also on the few cases in which the presentation of entry and exit wounds are atypical. This study can be used in those cases of firearm injuries like multiple firearm injuries and decomposed cases.