00:00:05
at the Dallas pistol and revolver Club
00:00:07
in
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1991 Trey kulie a young spectator was
00:00:12
watching a shooting competition seated
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behind an air gun
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range he was struck and killed by a
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stray
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[Music]
00:00:22
bullet this is how ballistics lasers and
00:00:26
forensic animation solved the riddle of
00:00:29
the Magic Bullet
00:00:33
[Music]
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[Music]
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14-year-old Trey kulie look at him and
00:01:06
you see the All-American boy Trey
00:01:09
attended B's Junior High School in
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Arlington Texas near Dallas he played
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cello in the school Orchestra played
00:01:16
baseball and was a Boy
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Scout at that age every kid has a whole
00:01:21
world open to he could have done
00:01:23
anything he wanted to do most of all he
00:01:26
enjoyed spending time with his family
00:01:29
Trey and and his father Butch were best
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friends we did everything
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together September 29th
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1991 Butch kulie woke early that
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Saturday morning then went to wake Trey
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the two shared a passion for shooting
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Butch was judging a competition he gave
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Trey a choice to sleep in or tag along
00:01:52
Trey chose to go with his
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father Trey started shooting when he was
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seven
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he enjoyed it shot his first deer when
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he was
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eight he wanted to be a pistol
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competitor and he was pretty good at
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it at the Dallas pistol and revolver
00:02:24
Club Trey volunteered to help out by
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running results from judges to the
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official scorer
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in between assignments he sat in the air
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gun building to get out of the hot Texas
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sun he sat just inside the door near two
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women who were working as scorers but
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behind people shooting air pistols
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nothing more than pellet and BB guns
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then a blood curdling
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scream Trey coie slumped to the floor
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blood flowing from his Temple his
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baseball cap had a tiny but Telltale
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hole Butch kie was outside the building
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just a few yards from his son when he
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heard the screaming although Butch Ki
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spent 21 years as a state trooper and
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was trained to handle emergencies no
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training could prepare him for what he
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saw
00:03:14
next when I got there I saw that he'd
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been shot I checked his pulse I knew it
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wasn't good Butch walked in and I asked
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him what are you doing
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home and I said well where is Trey and
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then he came came in and he told me he
00:03:30
said um there's been an
00:03:34
accident and um I was thinking you know
00:03:37
well he's cut his foot or cut his hand
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or broke his arm you know and I said
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well that's okay he's he'll be okay Trey
00:03:45
was rushed by ambulance to Parkland
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Memorial Hospital in Dallas he was just
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lying there um he was breathing or the
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machine was breathing for
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him his little hands were still warm
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and he just looked like he was
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asleep 6 hours later Trey
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died I just wanted to tell him that I
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was very very proud of him and I loved
00:04:13
him
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dearly my only
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son my best friend my fishing
00:04:25
buddy my hunting partner just a void
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Trey kulie was seated in the club's
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designated safety area it was an
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accident that shouldn't have
00:04:39
happened Detective Tom peas and crime
00:04:42
investigator David Taylor had a tough
00:04:45
job to figure out where the bullet that
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killed try kulie came from and to
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determine if the shooting was accidental
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or intentional Butch kie spent two
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decades as a state trooper was it
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possible the shooting had something to
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do with an enemy he possibly made during
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his tenure or had the bullet come from
00:05:06
outside from one of the outdoor shooting
00:05:08
ranges or possibly the nearby railroad
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tracks where kids had a history of
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taking shots at the air gun building uh
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the biggest problem with this range or
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this seam was the size of it it wasn't
00:05:20
contained inside a house inside an
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apartment it was outside and it covered
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several hundred fet the bullet removed
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from Trey's skull would provide some
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answers and raise new questions the
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bullet was small about half an inch long
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but lethal Larry Fletcher is the
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Firearms expert who conducted the
00:05:40
ballistics examination the bullet was
00:05:43
not that damaged uh the bullet was uh in
00:05:47
rather remarkable condition this is a 45
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caliber bullet after striking a cement
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wall it is badly mangled especially when
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compared to the bullet that killed Trey
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kulie that la lack of damage could be
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telling except for one thing this was
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not a typical 45 caliber bullet this
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particular bullet is a hand loaded or
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handmade bullet it's not a commercial
00:06:13
made bullet in which they can add other
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materials to the lead and make it much
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harder uh it can withstand a lot of
00:06:21
damage upon impact who makes and uses
00:06:25
these types of bullets but kie knew
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compared Shooters like
00:06:31
to to load their own
00:06:33
ammunition primary reason
00:06:36
being uh the cost savings most of the
00:06:39
competitive Shooters on the outside
00:06:41
ranges that day were using handmade
00:06:43
bullets so there was little doubt that
00:06:45
the bullet came from somewhere here
00:06:48
rather than from kids on the railroad
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tracks police collected the weapons and
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ammunition samples from the shooters in
00:06:55
the competition when Larry Fletcher
00:06:57
examined the bullets used that day on
00:06:59
the outside ranges he noticed something
00:07:02
else the powder charge uh which uh
00:07:06
increased the velocity of this
00:07:08
particular type of bullet basically the
00:07:10
shooters used bullets with more
00:07:12
gunpowder more gunpowder means these
00:07:15
bullets travel farther and faster than a
00:07:18
regular 45 caliber
00:07:22
bullet Fletcher's next task was to match
00:07:25
the bullet that killed Trey to one of
00:07:27
about a dozen guns each of the guns from
00:07:30
the shooting competition were test fired
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and compared to the bullet taken from
00:07:35
Trey kully's skull Fletcher had trouble
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getting an exact match because the extra
00:07:41
gunpowder created extremely high
00:07:43
temperatures during the firing of the
00:07:45
gun actually melting some of the
00:07:48
distinguishing marks but Fletcher
00:07:51
noticed a red wax on the bullet that
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killed Trey all Shooters use a
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lubricating wax but only one of the guns
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guns used a red
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wax Larry Fletcher found the gun that
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fired the Fatal shot at that point I was
00:08:07
pretty much convinced a pistol
00:08:09
competitor named Dan Smith was using
00:08:12
that gun on the day of the competition
00:08:15
and he was firing on this outdoor range
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just behind the air gun building but
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Smith told police he couldn't have fired
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the Fatal shot he felt that all his
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shots had made the Target that there
00:08:28
were no erant round
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but something just didn't add up to
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Butch kulie he spent his entire life
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around guns and won awards for
00:08:37
Marksmanship and gun safety he knew
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shooting ranges are supposed to be safe
00:08:43
accidents aren't supposed to happen it
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just didn't make
00:08:51
sense police were satisfied that Trey
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kou's death was an accident the
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ballistics report said the Fatal bullet
00:08:58
came from a gun fired from an outdoor
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range during the competition but how the
00:09:04
owner of the gun said he didn't miss a
00:09:06
shot and the range was designed to
00:09:08
contain any errant
00:09:10
bullet first there's a barrier between
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the air gun building and the firing
00:09:14
range it's called a burm it's a small
00:09:18
mountain of dirt about 12 ft High the
00:09:22
burm sits right behind the Targets in
00:09:24
the event a shooter misses either to the
00:09:26
left or right directly above the targets
00:09:29
are a series of wooden planks fastened
00:09:32
end to end and side by side these are
00:09:35
called baffles and are designed to catch
00:09:38
bullets fired a little high of the
00:09:40
target before they leave the
00:09:42
range then there are two additional sets
00:09:45
of baffles one just a few yards in front
00:09:48
of the firing line and another called an
00:09:52
eyebrow directly over the firing line
00:09:56
Ken Buster is a Safety Management
00:09:58
Consultant with with years of experience
00:10:00
as a shooter and with a special
00:10:02
expertise in firing ranges between the
00:10:06
eyebrow the baffles and the height of
00:10:08
the burm the vast majority of any stray
00:10:12
bullet would be stopped safety is should
00:10:14
be the number one priority in
00:10:15
everybody's mind anytime that you that
00:10:18
you participate in Marksmanship as a
00:10:22
sport something was wrong there Butch
00:10:25
kie began a personal crusade to learn
00:10:28
the truth he needed to know how a bullet
00:10:31
could bypass the Rangers safety features
00:10:34
and kill his only son Butch hired
00:10:37
attorney Mike Schmidt to find out where
00:10:40
or if the safety system had failed
00:10:43
Schmidt put together an investigative
00:10:45
team Steve Irwin was the first member as
00:10:48
an Accident Reconstructionist his job
00:10:51
was to create an exact computerized
00:10:54
three-dimensional scale model of the air
00:10:56
gun building and the firing ranges
00:10:59
using Laser Technology Precision
00:11:02
measuring devices and sophisticated
00:11:04
computer programs Irwin would also
00:11:06
uncovered the path of the bullet you
00:11:09
wind up starting at unfortunately the
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the young boy getting shot and then
00:11:14
working Your Way backwards police had
00:11:16
already identified some important Clues
00:11:19
the outside wall of the air gun building
00:11:22
was riddled with bullet holes from all
00:11:24
angles Irwin needed to know exactly
00:11:27
which one was the culprit
00:11:29
police also found bullet holes inside
00:11:32
the building in a sheetrock strip to
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protect a lighting fixture and in a wall
00:11:38
that separated the indoor range from a
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storage shed there was also a fresh
00:11:43
gouge in an ordinary ceiling tile
00:11:46
Irwin's laser survey equipment traced
00:11:48
the bullet's path from where Trey was
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sitting through all those points from
00:11:53
tray through the sheetrock strip off the
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ceiling tile and through the back wall
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wall it seemed unlikely but it matched
00:12:02
the evidence was roughly a straight line
00:12:06
but I couldn't see from the interior
00:12:08
wall to the exterior wall and it it
00:12:10
wasn't until we got it back to the
00:12:12
office and got it mapped that that it
00:12:15
formed this remarkably straight line a
00:12:17
straight line that led directly to one
00:12:20
of the bullet holes in the aluminum
00:12:21
siding then down to the shooting range
00:12:25
behind the air gun building it led to
00:12:27
the range where Dan Smith was shooting
00:12:30
but oddly enough not to the firing line
00:12:34
the laser pinpointed a path that landed
00:12:37
10 yard in front of the firing line when
00:12:40
Ken Buster was brought into the
00:12:42
investigation he immediately inspected
00:12:44
the firing range to see if there was any
00:12:47
way a bullet could get past all of the
00:12:50
range's safety features Buster delivered
00:12:53
a scathing report at the time and now I
00:12:56
still think that was the worst range
00:12:59
that I have ever seen he found dozens of
00:13:01
potentially deadly safety flaws the burm
00:13:05
separating the back range from the Front
00:13:07
Range was not the standard height which
00:13:10
is supposed to be 20 ft the burm behind
00:13:13
the air gun building was only 12 ft High
00:13:16
the baffles Were Far Below standard the
00:13:19
wooden planks should have had a steel or
00:13:21
concrete
00:13:22
backing and look closely at the planks
00:13:25
themselves they had separated leaving
00:13:29
big gaps a bullet could easily pass
00:13:32
through in this case the baffles might
00:13:35
well has not have been there and served
00:13:37
no purpose at all and Buster was
00:13:39
appalled by the bullet holes in the back
00:13:41
of the building several of these holes
00:13:44
had been plugged that means to me as a
00:13:46
safety person as a range person as a
00:13:49
longtime shooter that they knew that
00:13:51
bullets were getting out of that range
00:13:54
and they accepted that fact and
00:13:55
continued to shoot the laser analysis
00:13:58
projected the bullet path to the middle
00:14:00
of the outdoor range well in front of
00:14:03
the firing line how could this be it was
00:14:06
due to a Monumental
00:14:09
blunder during the competition shooters
00:14:12
were required to fire from several
00:14:15
distances first from the firing line at
00:14:18
25 yd then they moved forward to 20 yard
00:14:23
and finally to 15 yards the laser study
00:14:27
showed that the fat bullet was fired
00:14:30
from the 15 yd line the architectural
00:14:34
model shows the problem clearly by
00:14:37
firing from the 15 yd line Shooters had
00:14:40
to move in front of the eyebrow and the
00:14:43
first set of protective baffles and
00:14:45
Irwin's computer also showed another
00:14:48
frightening reality from the 15yd line
00:14:52
you could see the back of the air gun
00:14:54
building if you can see it you can shoot
00:14:56
it and any projectile
00:14:59
that might
00:15:01
leave the range in that area was going
00:15:04
to hit that building the laser showed
00:15:06
the bullet flew under the last baffle
00:15:09
over the burm and into the
00:15:12
building it involved a bizarre
00:15:15
trajectory it meant that the shooter
00:15:17
missed the Target high and to the left
00:15:20
by more than 5 ft a terrible miss how
00:15:24
could a trained Marksman miss a Target
00:15:27
by that much from only 15 y Away part of
00:15:31
that answer was found in the gun itself
00:15:34
close examination revealed it had been
00:15:37
modified it's like taking a standard car
00:15:39
making a hot rod some competitive
00:15:42
Shooters file down parts of the gun to
00:15:44
make it easier to pull the trigger
00:15:46
quickly they've uh got it set to where
00:15:49
they go off so easily with they fire two
00:15:51
rounds instead of one it feed so fast
00:15:54
the result is called doubling which
00:15:57
sometimes occurs as the gun Rec coils a
00:16:00
recoil is the backward Force created by
00:16:03
the explosion pushing the gun up in the
00:16:06
air each type of gun recoils differently
00:16:10
the 45 creates a recoil up and to the
00:16:13
left Kirk Parks had the task of
00:16:16
producing the computerized proof a
00:16:19
fact-based animation of what happened
00:16:21
his firm specializes in forensic
00:16:24
animation Parks videotaped hundreds of
00:16:27
45 caliber pist pistol shots using the
00:16:30
same type pistol and ammunition he used
00:16:33
this footage to create an exact
00:16:36
computerized reproduction of The Recoil
00:16:39
for the animation we shot the video from
00:16:41
the top of the weapon and we shot it
00:16:43
from the side and we shot it from the
00:16:46
front next Parks created wireframe
00:16:49
models of a competitive shooter in
00:16:51
action and then animated Irwin's laser
00:16:54
studies of the firing range and the
00:16:57
bullet path to complete the picture It
00:16:59
produced the exact results necessary to
00:17:02
generate the bullet path that was
00:17:03
surveyed up and to the left I can't say
00:17:06
for sure that the gun doubled but all of
00:17:08
the
00:17:09
evidence seems to indicate that it did
00:17:12
and it fired during the uncontrollable
00:17:14
recoil this forensic animation was able
00:17:17
to show what happened to Trey kulie on
00:17:20
the morning of September 29th
00:17:23
1991 but the animation showed that the
00:17:26
bullet took a remarkable Journey one
00:17:29
which almost defied
00:17:34
belief when Trey [ __ ] entered the
00:17:36
Dallas pistol and revolver Club on
00:17:38
September 29th
00:17:40
1991 the range was a tragedy just
00:17:43
waiting to strike outside on the firing
00:17:46
range behind the air gun building Dan
00:17:49
Smith one of the last competitors of the
00:17:51
day steps up to the 15 yd Line This
00:17:55
moves him in front of two sets of safety
00:17:58
baffles
00:17:59
using a modified gun smith takes aim and
00:18:03
squeezes the trigger in a fraction of a
00:18:06
second another shot is fired during The
00:18:08
Recoil phase of the original shot it
00:18:11
happens so quickly the shooter doesn't
00:18:13
know it left the gun the bullet misses
00:18:16
the Target high and to the left
00:18:18
traveling upwards it passes underneath
00:18:21
the last set of protective baffles and
00:18:24
just 3 in over the burm it's speeding at
00:18:27
12200 ft per second the bullet blasts
00:18:31
through the aluminum siding goes through
00:18:34
a storage room misses a broom and some
00:18:36
pipes by less than an inch and then
00:18:38
breaks through a second wall entering
00:18:41
the air gun range then the bullet does
00:18:45
something
00:18:46
unbelievable it strikes an ordinary
00:18:49
ceiling tile and for some unknown reason
00:18:52
it doesn't blast straight through into
00:18:54
the roof instead it skids along the tile
00:18:58
for 7 in before mysteriously changing
00:19:02
direction making a 10° turn and begins a
00:19:06
downward path it slows to about 900 ft
00:19:10
per second penetrates a plaster wall and
00:19:13
enters Trey CO's head
00:19:27
[Music]
00:19:38
[Music]
00:19:44
the kolie family filed a negligent suit
00:19:47
against the gun club and individuals
00:19:49
involved with the competition the judge
00:19:52
who presided over the civil case was
00:19:54
impressed with the visual and
00:19:56
computerized evidence I've been on the
00:19:58
bench 6 half years and I would say
00:20:00
that's in the the top uh two or three or
00:20:04
four uh in terms of just the the
00:20:07
professionalism and the effectiveness of
00:20:11
of the uh demonstrative evidence brought
00:20:13
into court the kou's attorney says the
00:20:16
forensic animation and model explained
00:20:19
this tragedy in a way nothing else could
00:20:22
I could not have possibly gotten the
00:20:25
result that I got on behalf of the coie
00:20:28
family without
00:20:29
the animation also helped Butch kulie
00:20:32
understand what had happened to his son
00:20:35
but there is still little piece for
00:20:37
Trey's Dad what's
00:20:44
peace he just take it a day at a time
00:20:48
change just one thing and Trey [ __ ]
00:20:51
might be alive today the range it
00:20:55
wouldn't have happened because I would
00:20:57
not have allowed that competition to
00:20:59
occur on that particular range the gun
00:21:05
they may not even be aware that it's
00:21:06
double firing or slam firing on them
00:21:08
they may think it's properly functioning
00:21:11
the bullet if it had been a softer
00:21:13
bullet they may not have ricocheted as
00:21:16
much would not have had the velocity or
00:21:19
if the shooter had been standing at the
00:21:22
proper Firing Line the shot would have
00:21:24
hit the baffle or flown over the
00:21:27
building but wide did this fatal bullet
00:21:30
change direction as it hit the soft
00:21:32
ceiling tile instead of blasting
00:21:35
straight through as it did with the hard
00:21:37
walls buis can do incredible things
00:21:40
things they're not expected to do these
00:21:43
thoughts haunt but Ki no explanation can
00:21:47
ease the pain felt by a father who woke
00:21:50
his son early one September morning no I
00:21:53
want to go should let him sleep
00:21:58
[Music]
00:22:23
a
00:22:25
[Music]
00:22:28
a
00:22:32
[Music]
