I am interested in what the autopsies will show.
The autopsies were released a couple of days ago.
There were a total of five bullets for which the diameter was not described or had passed through and were not found. There was one bullet that was described as small caliber. There were 7 bullets which were described as medium caliber, 6 of which were marked with a similar pattern. There was one bullet that was described as medium to large.
Many of the recovered bullets had markings. In one case, all three injuries contained bullets bearing the same markings. I've not heard of this before. My first thought was marked bullets issued to police, but they were described as "medium caliber" which does not fit with .223 bullets. These marked bullets were used to kill two Cossacks, one Bandido, one Scimitar and one unaffiliated biker. The range of deceased affiliations also made me wonder if the police had fired these, but it could just as easily be a chaotic shootout in a crowded area, or even shooters on both sides of the biker conflict using the same brand of ammunition. Edit: I just pulled a 9mm Ranger T bullet and it didn't have any markings. Anyone see this anywhere?
I thought it was interesting that some of the deceased Cossacks had 5 "white metal, large caliber" unfired cartridges in their vest pockets. I wonder if this is some sort of a reference by the Cossack MC to the cartridges that the Cossacks wore on their dress uniform.
The results:
Daniel Raymond Boyett - Cossack - died of two gunshot wounds to the head. One bullet is described as a "deformed, copper-jacket base" as well as copper jacket and lead fragments. The other is described as a "deformed bullet". He received a third grazing wound with lead and copper jacket fragments found in the wound.
Wayne Lee Campbell - Cossack - died of a single gunshot wound to the lower face that entered into his torso. The recovered jacket was described as being small caliber the bullet fragmented significantly. Thus, based on the ME's description, very likely killed by police.
Richard Mathew Jordan II - Cossack - described by some accounts as the first to die - took a "medium to large caliber" to the back of the head. This bullet fragmented into two pieces that were recovered.
Richard Vincent Kirschner Jr. - Cossack - took three hits to the butt and legs. All three jackets pulled from his body were marked in some variation of the following:
15
8016
TP
Recovered bullets are described variously as "fragments of a small caliber bullet", "fragments of a jacketed bullet", and "fragments of a jacketed medium caliber bullet". I'm not sure what to think about this one. Given identical markings on the bullets I'm assuming they were probably the same caliber but there are conflicting caliber assignments. However, all other bullets with similar marks were described as "medium caliber", so I'm inclined to go that route.
Jacob Lee Rhyne - Cossack - took a bullet to the neck and a bullet to the stomach, both of which fragmented into "copper-colored jacket fragments and white metal fragments". No description of bullet diameter.
Jesus Delgado Rodriguez - Unaffiliated - was shot in the head and a "copper-jacketed, slightly deformed, medium caliber" bullet was recovered. The bullet was marked:
15
8021
CS
He was also shot in the back but that bullet passed through and was not recovered. Based on the markings of the projectile, I'm inclined to think that this was the same type of bullet used to kill Kirschner, Manuel Rodriguez and Russell.
Manuel Isaac Rodriguez - Bandido - was shot in the head and a "severely deformed, apparent medium caliber, jacketed bullet" was recovered. He was also shot in the back and a "moderately deformed, apparent medium caliber, jacketed bullet" was recovered. This one was marked:
15
8023
SMH
Charles Wayne Russell - Cossack - was shot in the chest with a "medium caliber, minimally deformed bullet" that passed through his body but was trapped by his vest. This bullet was marked:
15
08020
JU
Matthew Mark Smith - Scimitar - was shot in the back and the associated bullet was recovered and described as a "markedly-deformed, medium-caliber, jacketed projectile". He was also shot in the abdomen but that bullet exited and was not recovered.
