Multiple gunshot suicide

Causes

Incapacitation from a gunshot injury results from a decrease in the functioning of the central nervous system. In a suicide by firearm, immediate incapacitation can be achieved by direct disruption to brain stem tissue. Rapid incapacitation can be achieved indirectly by cerebral hypoxemia resulting from massive bleeding from the heart, the thoracic aorta, or the pulmonary artery. Damage to other major organs – the lungs, kidneys, liver, spleen – results only in delayed incapacitation.

Examples

Multiple-gunshot suicides are rare, but possible. In one study of 138 gunshot suicides, five (3.6%) involved two shots to the head, the first of which missed the brain. In 2012, a suicide was reported in which a man shot himself eight times in the head before he died 22 hours later.

One particular case has been documented from Australia. In February 1995, a man committed suicide on parkland in Canberra. He took a pump-action shotgun loaded with four 12-gauge No. 2 shot shell cartridges, and in a stooped position, pressed the muzzle into the centre of the chest before shooting himself. The load passed through the chest without entering the ribcage before exiting below the left nipple. The man then cycled the shotgun's action, ejecting the fired shell. He then walked 15 meters before shooting himself in the right side of the throat, with the charge exiting out of the left side and taking a fragment of jaw with it. At this point, the shotgun potentially fell to the ground causing the ejection of both the spent cartridge and one unspent cartridge. The man, now breathing through a gunshot-induced tracheostomy, picked up the shotgun and then walked 136 meters to a hill where he sat down on the slope and loaded the fourth cartridge from the magazine and into the weapon's breech. The man then removed his shoes and held the gun against his chest with his hands and operated the trigger with his toes. This shot entered the thoracic cavity and demolished the heart, killing him.

In 1978, poet Frank Stanford put three bullets into his own heart with a pistol. This inspired the Indigo Girls song "Three Hits". Other notable figures that died of multiple-gunshot suicides include Gary Webb and Yuriy Kravchenko, as well as the perpetrators of the Crandon shooting, the 2021 San Jose shooting, and the 1999 Independence Day weekend shootings.

Conspiracy theories

Multiple-gunshot deaths of notable figures are known to fuel conspiracy theories among those who are unaware of the phenomenon. Following the two-gunshot death of Gary Webb, conspiracy theorists levied allegations that Webb was murdered.

References

References

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2. (1997). "Multiple gunshot suicides: potential for physical activity and medico-legal aspects". Int J Legal Med.
3. (2015). "Determined to Die! Ability to Act Following Multiple Self-inflicted Gunshot Wounds to the Head. The Cook County Office of Medical Examiner Experience 2005-2012 and Review of Literature". Journal of Forensic Sciences.
4. Herdson, PB. (2000). "Shotgun suicide with a difference". Med J Aust.
5. (1999). "Third time lucky--an unusual suicide". Medicine, Science, and the Law.
6. "background: three hits".
7. Daunt, Tina. (March 16, 2005). "Written In Pain". Los Angeles Times.
8. Devereaux, Ryan. (2014). "How the CIA Watched Over the Destruction of Gary Webb". [[The Intercept]].
9. Stanton, Sam. (December 15, 2004). "Reporter's suicide confirmed by coroner". [[The Sacramento Bee]].