Posted on 06/10/2015 4:41:20 PM PDT by BBell
The shotgun wielded by a teen accused of killing a father and son in their Metairie home belonged to an Orleans Parish Sheriff's Office deputy, a detective in the case testified Tuesday. The shotgun was a personal weapon reported stolen in a New Orleans vehicle burglary about a month before the April 22 slayings of David Pence, 56, and Nicholas Pence, 25, confirmed Col. John Fortunato, spokesman for the Jefferson Parish Sheriff's Office.
JPSO detectives recovered the Mossburg pump-action shotgun from the home of 17-year-old suspect Dexter Allen Jr., 2227 Arts St., New Orleans, two days after the shootings, authorities have said. Ballistics testing linked the gun to the Pence murders.
New details about the shotgun and the investigation into the murders came to light Tuesday (June 9) when JPSO Detective William Roniger testified before 24th Judicial District Court Magistrate Commissioner Patricia Joyce about the involvement of Allen's girlfriend and co-defendant, Haraquon Degruy, 18. Authorities booked her with two counts of being a principal to second-degree murder and one count of being a principal to first-degree murder.
Degruy, also of New Orleans, is accused of driving a stolen sport utility vehicle while she and Allen burglarized vehicles in the Pences' neighborhood on the night of the murders. Detectives identified her as a suspect after lifting her fingerprint from a nearby vehicle burglarized that night.
(Excerpt) Read more at nola.com ...
A friend of mine, who was a jailer, had a nice .357 Sig stolen out of his truck. It makes you wonder if the crooks intentionally target LEO's private vehicles.
I thought crooks and murders bought all their firearms at gunshows.
Will the deputy be charged with leaving a firearm unsecured?
Nah....
Only if the gunshows are in Houston.
How does that work? I have a Mossberg shotgun, and if the shell casings aren't left behind, how do they do the ballistics tests to specifically I.D. the gun?
That is such a tragic situation.
I have a family member who loves visiting NOLA and I’m thinking, “but why?”
I believe the casings were left behind. These criminals are not exactly genius’s.
If it was in his truck and the truck was locked it is considered secure. Now if the truck is not locked I’m not sure.
Had a great time in New Orleans one Saturday afternoon, ended up having a buddy getting his head busted open - on the road we took a wrong turn and when turning around some guys started chasing us, when he stopped at a stop sign there were 3-4 cars ahead of us and boom, a tire iron comes through the front drivers window. We drove off, but straight to the hospital and spent Saturday night there and left Sunday, fun time New Orleans
First of all, the manufacturer is Moss-BERG, not -burg.
Ballistics testing linked the gun to the Pence murders.
Secondly, unless there's something I'm missing, I didn't know you could do ballistic tests on a shotgun. Usually, ballistic forensics ties a firearm to a spent round by matching up the lands and grooves on the recovered round. But since there is no rifling on a shotgun and the "round" is dozens of pellets that would have no unique markings on them, I don't understand how they could tie anything to a particular weapon.
Now if the shooter was stupid enough to rack the spent casings out and leave them at the scene, it's possible forensics could tie the firing pin imprint back to the weapon.
Agree...
There was a case solved (supposedly) in Mobile, Alabama many years ago involving a sawed off shotgun.
The ballistics expert testified that the barrel was left with a rough muzzle from being sawed off with a hacksaw. That left impressions on the buckshot.
I frankly think it was more guess than science but I don’t really know.
Of course shell casings do leave a lot more indications. If he pumped several shots into the chamber there probably would have been shell left at the scene assuming they did not police up their empties.
I’m sure this could have been prevented with some more gun registration and other gun control laws! /leftidiot
Dollars to donuts says these idiots didn't pick up the spent shotgun shells/hulls when they left. Then, sure, the spent shells could be matched to the particular Mossberg shotgun by the extractor marks and the firing pin impression.
Assuming it was shot that was fired, and not a slug, the shot wouldn't touch the barrel and so there wouldn't be any distinctive markings on the shot.
Some recommend loading personal defense shotguns with both slugs and buckshot so finding so both at a crime scene is possible.
They do have rifled slug barrels. Don’t know if that was the case here. Most likely the criminal mastermind left the ejected shells which matched the remaing ammo in the shotgun. They can also match the firing pin strikes in the primers.
Oh wait...never mind.
Snap! That sounds dangerous!
You can put a rifle barrel on a Mossberg and shoot heavy slugs for stopping power. ... Or use rifled slugs in a smooth barrel. The first will be testable the second, not so much.
The food.
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