Police put together evidence, piece by little piece

Police put together evidence, piece by little piece
The Times of India

Bangalore: The wintry evening sylvan serenity that was the IISc campus till 7 pm on Wednesday now looks like a war zone pockmarked with bloodstains, cartridges, grenades, bullet marks on trees and walls, and the massive deployment of armed personnel.

Hours after the suspected terrorist opened fire at the campus, killing a professor and injuring four others, investigators are piecing together evidence to reconstruct Wednesday evening’s ghastly shooting.

With little help from varying, sometimes contradictory, eyewitness accounts, the police are depending largely on evidence collected by forensic experts. So far, there is no concrete information on the getaway vehicle, the police maintain. “The initial reaction of many is panic. The scene can be reconstructed after meticulously going through eyewitness accounts and also by collecting forensic evidence,” a police officer said.

Forensic experts and police are rummaging through every patch of a 100 sqmt area around the J N Tata Auditorium to collect vital pieces of evidence. There are bullet marks on walls, windows, doors, trees and a car and ballistic experts are scrutinising every dent. “The bullets have ricocheted and it is important to find the direction and angle from which they were fired to reconstruct the scene,’’ a police officer said.

While the AK-56 and six discarded rifle box magazines are being checked for fingerprints, experts are verifying the make and origin of the weapon and ammunition. The bloodstains too form a vital clue to the direction of the attack.

The police have so far recovered three hand grenades, a cloth bag containing edible dates, expelled shells from the rifle and bloodstained material.

“Some eyewitnesses informed that the gunman in military garb was around 6 feet tall and had a fair complexion. We will put together a portrait once more details are available,’’ another officer added.