MEDT230 Lecture Notes - Lecture 5: Gunshot Residue, Livor Mortis, Rigor Mortis
17 Mar 2016
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Lecture 5 notes la county coroner"s office video. Coroner"s pick up the body, wrap it up, and take it away. Over 1,000 homicides are gang-related and make very little sense: they don"t know their victim, they"re just shooting someone. Dispatchers (similar to 911 dispatchers) work 24/7. Gunshot residue tests can only be performed by the coroner: police are not allowed to touch the body. Coroners must try to identify the victims if there is no known identification: they can do this using markings such as tattoos. Coroner must make initial observations upon arrival to the body, such as entry/exit wounds of gunshots. It takes about 15 minutes to die of carbon monoxide poisoning. Homicide in the u. s. is the plague of the poor : suicide is more common among the affluent . Total number of suicides in the country exceeds the number of homicides. About 1/3 of teenagers who commit suicide (at the time the film was made) are gay.
