Officer Shoots Inmate

A properly loaded factory ammo be it a 9mm, 38spl., 380, would definitely penetrate a skull. While an improperly loaded ammo, reload or factory which is underloaded might just graze your forehead.
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Uhmm..... you might want to check out Jim Cirillo's book Guns, Bullets, and Gunfights: Lessons and Tales from a Modern-Day Gunfighter (Boulder, Colo: Paladin Press, 1996).

The human skull varies greatly in the thickness and density of the bone. The skull's rounded shape frequently causes bullets to be deflected away from the brain. It is not unusual for there to be an entrance wound on the forehead and an exit wound in the occipitul region with the bullet never penetrating the skull but merely travelling between the flesh and the bone. If the settings on the CT Scan are adjusted you can frequently see the path the bullet takes.

NukemJim
 
Hey garry how long have been a CO.Because if you think your department cares about your safety than think again.I know mine doesn't.All they care about is the money.:eek:
God forbid you should get some decent equipment.
And vtfire when was the last time you were issued a weapon on any kind of a trip.There I said it.
 
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What happened then should not surprise you.The guy without the weapon is the one who should have been shackling the inmate not the one with.At least thats how we do it.
 
errr....

Well, Buzz, if it is an inmate trying to escape from me....I will not waste time on distractions.
 
Are the rules different for escaping prisoners as for fleeing felons? I know the Supreme Court was clear on when deadly force could be used to apprehend felons, I'm just not sure if the Garner doctrine applies the same to prisoners.
 
Penetration

I have seen documentation of .38s, .357s, .25s, 9mms and others failing to penetrate the human skull. The forehead is one of the thickest and strongest bones in the body. Even properly loaded rounds can fail to penetrate if the angle of entry is sufficiently shallow.
I have also seen (firsthand) head shots with .45 that walked into the ER and one kid who shot himself in the head with a .22. All he managed to do was sever both optic nerves.
 
Buzz ...

State law here allows deadly force to be used to prevent any inmate escape from any inclosed government correctional facility or jail ( including subjects that are being transported ) within the state (adults, anyway). They do not have to have a weapon , or pose a threat. I know of at least one other state that I worked in that had the same law. I assume that since states have the authority to have such laws, then the federal government must allow the individual states to determine when leathal force may be used to prevent the escape of not only convicted prisoners but also pretrail detainees.
We are going off subject, so I will not post any more on this thread, regarding this subject.
 
In our state the PC reason is we are to shoot to stop not to kill i think the real reason is alot of the officers can't handle a full house 357 load. It may have come out different if he would have double tapped center mass. Plus we have 2 officers when at a hospital the 2nd officer holds both weapons when we are close to inmates.
 
Um it's an intresting point about the other officer having a pace maker, not it's just speculation on my part however obviously an armed officer could be nowhere near the MR unit (big magnet and steel gun) equals no good.

I have been in a bunch of MRI units and most ahve blind corners and are kind of folded up into someplace out of mind in the building designers head.

If I had to guess the perp dam well knew this and took advantage of the officers distance and time away from direct observation to make extra ready for such an attack.

Dam sure is ashame the round underpenetrated

What preytell was this fine fellow needing an MRI of? Anyone know, he shure sounds healthy enough.
 
I have been privy to several of these incidents over the years, where the bullet skips off the noggin bone and goes skittering off under the scalp. Wish I could recall all the calibers, but I'm sure one was a .22 LR solid, another was a .380 and yet another involved a .38 with JHP ammo- probably 125 grain since that what the involved agency was issuing in those days.

I have also seen a number of folks rendered quite dead over getting their bell rung with .22's, .38's and the like. It's all about the impact angle, and if the bullet shape/construction is rounded/soft, I believe it contributes to deflection.

The SWC is about as likely to chop through at oblique angles as anything out there, or so I have found by shooting a couple hundred pounds of them at random objects and game over the years.
 
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