Rubber Batons and Ricochets: a Case Report

Abstract

This paper is actually a case report from an “accident” during SWAT team training, resulting in injuries by Fiocchi rubber baton bullets. Two people were injured in this incident, one suffering multiple finger bone fractures and the other had a 3-cm-wide and 3-cm-deep open wound in the inner thigh, with kind of distant traumas around this wound. Two versions of the incident were in dispute. The prosecutor hypothesis supposed direct shots on the victims from a distance between 5 and 10 m. The defendant version claimed that injuries resulted from uncontrolled ricochets on a concrete floor at a distance between 3 and 5 m from the victims. We had then to assess the behavior of such bullets after ricochets (angles of departure and stability after ricochet, kinetic energy retained) and the wounding ability of such bullets. Our protocol included high-speed video tracking, test shots on simulants, and Doppler radar tracking. The results showed clear support to the prosecutor version, since after a ricochet, the angle of departure never exceeded 5°, the mean loss of velocity was 39 m/s, and the flight was clearly unstable for at least 3 m. Direct shots on simulants appeared positively correlated to the wound, even though this model showed limits in its validity. This case may then be of interest for professionals in the non-lethal weapons area and those involved in army or law enforcement doctrine conception.