...in trying to reach the gun he had bent forward and the gun might have been underneath him, essentially firing between his legs and striking him in the temple, with his head turnd in such a bizarre way as he strained to perform the physical act.
However, there's something interesting (maybe it's nothing) from this very recent article:
The newest information released has revealed that a small .380 caliber cobra semi-auto firearm was discovered along with an expended case and a projectile, which was recovered in the back of the vehicle. Investigators said the firearm found in the patrol car had previously been reported stolen by a Jonesboro resident.
I just finished watching an episode of Mythbusters with my youngest son which covered ricochets. As crazy as this sounds, if they found a projectile or what I think might be part of one, then the bullet could have been fired, missed him completely, hit the back of the police officer's seat and bounced off a metal plate back into his head. Long shot, but I bring it up becuase I wouldn't be surprised if the back of a police officer's seat actually had a big hard piece of metal like that to separate them from gunfire from the back. I dunno.
If he was as bent forward with the top of his head touching that plate and he fired a bullet accidentally into it, it's absolutely possible that the bullet shattered but a chunk went into his head. Again, I bring this up only because I finished watching a show on just this sort of thing, which covered bullets that ricochet off of 1, 2 and 3 surfaces in quite a bit of detail, showing the ricochet and fragmentation in slow motion, and calculating whether the fragments would still be traveling at lethal speed if they hit a human.
It's the episode called "Boomerang Bullet", and it's in the first half of the episode. It goes on in the second half of the episode, but they cover stuff like bullets traveling through bent pipes and stuff that isn't germane to what I'm talking about.
PB
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