Chapter 339

Xiao Hei laughed, “Raymond, when did you change your profession to become a forensic pathologist?”

The body was black after being burned and smoked, and there were still quite a few wounds on the body, coupled with the tragic crash scene, it was difficult to distinguish the exact cause of death at the first time.

Raymond walked over to the body and pointed to the wound on his chest, “The deceased has a two to three centimeter irregular wound on his chest, if I’m not wrong, he suffered a bigger damage to his chest cavity, and the wound on his back would be even bigger.

It would have been a penetrating wound from a large caliber bullet.”

Jackson concluded, “Which means that the driver was shot by a large caliber bullet, and then the car went out of control into the opposite lane, causing a much larger accident.”

Without answering, Ramon put on his gloves, walked over to the charred car, carefully searched the back of the driver’s side, and picked up a bullet head from the back of the car.

“It’s a 7.62mm rifle bullet with an effective kill range of around eight hundred meters.” Raymond swept his gaze around and pointed at a building to the south, “If I were a gunman, I would choose to use a sniper rifle to shoot there, high ground, good vision, and also easy to escape.”

Ramon was proficient in firearms and spent most of his time in the shooting range, Luke still trusted his analysis.

Luke then began to arrange the tasks, “Marcus, give statements to the surrounding pedestrians and ask about the situation at the time of the accident.

Porter, line up the car recorders of several cars involved in the accident and look for videos from the time of the crash.

Jackson, contact the hospital and ask about the condition of several injured people.

Ramon, Jenny, you’re in charge of searching for the shooter.”

Luke searched the car and found the driver’s license of the suspected victim.

Name, Bart Ramos.

Gender, male

Height, 183cm

Weight, 160 lbs.

Hair color, yellow.

Date of birth, March 16, 1982

License plate number, 3lKb548.

Luke compared the dead man’s physical features; the dead man had burns on his body, but the burns weren’t very severe, and his face was blackened, but his appearance wasn’t affected.

The facial features, height, hair color, and body type all matched up, basically identifying the deceased.

The forensic and survey teams also arrived at the scene.

The three heavily crashed cars were on fire, the scene was a mess, the bloodstained bullet was also found by Raymond, and the survey team had a hard time finding valuable clues.

The coroner’s side did find something, just as Raymond guessed, the deceased was indeed hit by a bullet in the chest cavity, resulting in internal organ damage and blood loss and death.

Luke gathered his team to summarize the clues.

The passerby’s description was the same as the patrolman’s earlier description, they only saw the vehicle involved in the accident run out of control into the other side of the lane and collide with other vehicles.

But no one noticed any shots being fired or heard any gunshots.

In addition, the vehicle involved in the crash did not have a CCTV, and the CCTVs of the other vehicles captured the collision, including one that captured the windshield breaking when the vehicle ran into the opposite lane, which is consistent with the presumption that the driver was shot first and then crashed.

After summarizing all the clues, Luke is more inclined to Raymond’s speculation, since the people around did not hear the gunshots, it means that the shooter is farther away, and there are also cars in front of and around the vehicle involved in the accident, the shooter can’t be shooting parallel to each other, he can only be standing at a high place to shoot.

Luke scanned around, the building that Ramon had mentioned before was indeed the most suitable place to shoot.

Marcus and Jackson stayed at the crime scene, Luke rushed to the south side of the building with Porter and the patrolmen to meet up with Ramon to find the shooter’s shooting location.

If the shooter was shooting from a distance, it meant that the shooter shouldn’t have been at the scene, and it would be hard to find clues related to the shooter at the scene of the accident, except for the bullet head.

The shooting location where the gunman was located, on the other hand, would leave more traces of the gunman’s presence, and that would be the real ‘murder scene’.

Patu Apartment.

It was a seven-story apartment building.

Luke took the elevator up to the sixth floor to meet up with Ramon and the others.

“Ramon, did you find anything?”

“Captain, come here for a moment.” Ramon led Luke over to the hallway window and pointed to the north side of the highway, “You can just about see the accident scene of the car crash from here.

The view is obscured below the fifth floor, so the shooter would have been shooting from the sixth or seventh floor.

I took someone to check the windows of the corridors on the sixth and seventh floors and found no traces left by the shooter’s shots.

From my experience, the accident vehicle was traveling at a high speed and the shooting was very difficult, with high demands on the shooting environment and the shooter.

This shooter is most likely a professional killer, it’s unlikely that he would choose a corridor as a shooting location, he should be looking for a safer and quieter environment.”

Luke guessed, “You suspect the shooter fired from his apartment room?”

“Yes. Jenny’s already taking patrolmen on a routine search of the apartment building, she’s covering the seventh floor and I’m covering the sixth.”

“Good.” Luke thought for a moment and said, “Porter, you take someone to find the apartment building’s property and check the apartment building’s surveillance video to see if there are any suspicious people who look like the shooter.

I’ll check the seventh floor.”

“YES, Sir.”

The seventh floor of Patou’s apartment.

In addition to Jenny, there were three patrolmen, of which, one patrolman was lining up with Jenny and the other two were in charge of guarding the area.

“Knock knock.”

Jenny knocked on the door of apartment 703.

A woman’s voice sounded inside the door, “Who are you?”

Jenny flashed her badge, “I’m an LAPD officer.”

The apartment door opened and a black woman in her sixties asked, “What can I do for you?”

“Ma’am, we’re investigating a shooting? The shooter is likely lurking in the apartment and wants to make sure the apartment residents are safe.”

“Thank you, I’m fine.”

“Ma’am, around 9:00 a.m., did you hear anything unusual?”

“I’m not sure ……”

“Just tell us what you heard and we’ll make our own judgment.”

“I think I heard arguing and the sound of something being dropped.”

“Are you sure it was the sound of things being dropped and not gunshots?”

“I don’t think it was a gunshot, it wasn’t that loud.”

“The shooter probably had a silencer installed.”

“Then I’m not sure, I don’t know much about firearms.”

Wanting to make sure it wasn’t a gunshot, Jenny pressed, “Do you know where the sound came from?”

The woman hesitated and pointed to the apartment door of 707, “It seems to be that one, I’m not really sure.”

“Do you recognize that household?”

“Uh …… I just moved here too, I’m not very familiar with it, I just know that there’s a man and a woman living in there, both white.”

“Thanks, we’ll confirm it ourselves.”

“I don’t want any trouble, don’t say I said so.” The woman finished and closed the door to the room.

Jenny made a note in her book and was about to go line up 707 when she saw the elevator doors open and Luke stepped out, “Captain, you’re here.”

“Any findings?”

“An occupant responded to the sound of arguing and breaking things in 707, I’m just about to confirm the situation.”

“You carry on.” Luke stepped aside to keep a lookout, it was easier to call the door on something like that or a policewoman.

“Knock knock.” Jenny walked up to door 707 and knocked.

There was no response from inside the door.

“Knock knock.” Jenny continued to knock.

“Who’s out there, stop knocking on the damn door.” A man shouted from inside the house.

Jenny shouted, “LAPD, open the door!”

A moment later, the door opened a crack.

A white woman stood in the crack in the door, showing only half her face, “Can I help you?”

Jenny flashed her badge, “Ma’am, please open the door and stand outside.”

The woman froze and slowly opened the door and stepped outside, the sleeve of her blouse was torn and she had a slap mark on her face.

Jenny frowned, “Ma’am, were you attacked?”

“No.”

“What happened to your face?”

“Accidental fall.”

“Then why are your clothes broken?”

“My clothes were hanging on the locker when I fell and ripped.”

“Such a coincidence?” Jenny had been in the police force for years, and in her judgment, the odds were that the woman was lying.

“Ma’am, was there anyone else in the house?”

“Yes, and my husband.”

“Can you call him out?”

“Uh …… he doesn’t like contact with strangers and his temper isn’t very good, just tell me if you guys need anything.”

Jenny took a deep breath, she probably guessed what was going on, glanced at Luke next to her, suppressed the fire in her heart and turned the conversation around, “Ma’am, we’re investigating a shooting, the shooter is most likely in the apartment, and we need to make sure that every occupant is safe.”

“Uh, we’re fine, there was no gunman attack.”

“Did you hear any gunshots around 9:00 a.m.?”

“No.”

“Do you have a gun in your house?”

“No.”

“Can we go in and take a look?”

“No need, we don’t have any gunmen in our house, so you’d better look elsewhere.

My husband doesn’t like strangers coming into my house.” The woman looked a little flustered.

“Ma’am, have you been subjected to violence?”

“No, you guys can leave now.” The white woman said and simply closed the door to the room.

Jenny let out a sigh and stepped aside to say to Luke, “Captain, I think this woman is not in the right state, most likely she has suffered domestic violence.”

Luke had just stood aside to observe the white woman as well, and she did look a bit panicked, she should be hiding something.

He was about to say something when the intercom rang, “Captain, I’ve got a situation on the sixth floor.”

“Roger that.” Luke finished and ordered, “Leave two officers on this floor to keep an eye on it, and the rest follow me downstairs.”

Jenny glanced at the door to room 707, although she was still a bit uneasy, she also knew that investigating the shooter was more important and followed her downstairs.

“Ramon, what’s the situation?”

“Captain, I vaguely heard a cell phone ringing when I was questioning the occupants of the sixth floor, the soundproofing of the apartment is not very good, it should be the cell phone of one of the occupants, but the cell phone has not been answered, so I feel that something is not right.

Later, I listened carefully should be 609 or 611 one of the two households.

I knocked on the door of 611, no one answered and no one opened the door.

After that, I knocked on the door of 609, and the head of the household was a black man in his thirties. According to him, he said that he did hear an unusually loud noise at around 9 o’clock today, which was kind of like a gunshot and kind of like smashing something, and he wasn’t sure about it.

He also said that the original occupants of 611 moved out and no one is supposed to be living there now, but he heard a door opening and closing this morning, and what sounded like talking voices and a woman screaming.” Raymond asked, “Captain, should we contact the apartment owner?”

“Contact for sure.

But if there are gunshots, women screaming, and unanswered cell phones ringing in apartment room 611, it means there may be danger in the room.

A crisis situation necessitates that we take emergency action and prepare a door breaker.”

As a captain, you have to stand up at critical moments and dare to make decisions.

“YES, Sir.”

“Bang!” The apartment door was slammed open.

Ramon led the charge into the apartment, several officers on guard with guns in both hands.

“One casualty found in the living room.”

“Bedroom secure.”

“Restroom secure.”

Luke holstered his pistol and walked over to the injured man, checking his body, there was no heartbeat or breathing.

“Dead.”

He knelt down to take a closer look at the man, dressed in a black suit with a look of shock on his face, his chest was stained with blood and there were two wounds from the gunshot.

Raymond picked up a shell casing from the ground, “This time it’s a small caliber bullet pistol murder.”

Luke scanned around and asked, “What do you think?”

Ramon walked over to the apartment window and looked out, “The window was opened and you can just see the scene of the automobile accident from here.

There’s also a table sitting next to the window, but judging by the table’s fit and location, it shouldn’t have been here originally.

The reason why it was moved here is that it should have been used by the murderer as a pivot point for the sniper rifle.”

Ramon squatted down and picked up another shell casing, “There’s also a 7.62mm bullet casing here that matches the slug found on the driver who was shot.

This would be where the shooter fired.”

Raymond stood up and looked at the dead man in the apartment again, “From the position the dead man occupied, the dead man should have come in through the doorway just in time to see the gunman, and, subsequently, be killed by the gunman.”

Jenny asked, “Is it possible that they were in cahoots, and that the apartment dead were exterminated by the gunman after being used.”

Raymond said, “It’s unlikely, even if a professional killer wants to silence someone, he would choose a remote place, there’s no need to kill someone here, I don’t think they should be in a gang.”

Luke observed the environment of the scene and always felt that something was missing.

He checked around the room and walked to the door of the apartment, scrutinizing the corridor still didn’t find anything out of the ordinary.

Luke circled the corridor and stopped at the elevator door and pressed the elevator button, it took a moment for the doors to open.

It took too long.

With that, Luke walked to the stairway and found a red high heel on the inside of the stairs, followed the steps down and soon found another high heel.

Jenny came after him, “Captain, what did you find?”

Luke held up a pair of heels, “According to the neighbors, it is suspected that a woman’s screams were heard, but only a man’s body was found at the scene.

That means the woman probably ran away and waited too long for the elevator, odds are she would have been killed by the shooter, but there was no blood in the hallway.

She should have run the stairs.

The high heels should have been left behind when she escaped.”

Jenny pulled out her pistol, “I’ll lead a search down the stairs.”

“Be safe.” Luke admonished.

At the same time, he hoped that Jenny found nothing, that meant the witness was still alive.