Shot to the Head

Now this is an interesting story that has been sitting in my draft bin for a week or two:

In the middle of Joshua Bush's forehead, two inches above his eyes, lies the evidence that prosecutors say could send the teenager to prison for attempted murder: a 9 mm bullet, lodged just under the skin.

Bush is fighting a legal battle against having the bullet removed. Removal won't injure him, but considering the effort he is making, it probably will send him to jail.

For those not in the wound ballistics "know" head shots are tricky things. Not only is the head a smaller are more erratically moving target than the torso, but the skull is also round and fairly hard. It is covered in highly elastic skin and tissue that is easy to penetrate into, but hard to penetrate out of. When you combine these things together you can have bullets do wacky things, like penetrate the skin, skip off the hard bone of the skull, but not exit the head because of the elasticity of the skin. It is possible, but certainly not probable, for a bullet to do a complete 360 of someones head.

That probably isn't what happened to young Joshua though. He probably caught a ricochet in the forehead despite his prospective victim's statement that "I just can't believe I missed him at that distance." The assailant was standing in a darkened alley at the time.

Tammie Bush, the teen's mother, disputed allegations her son is a gang member.

"We know he's not a criminal," she said. "He's a good kid."

Keep in mind Bush admitted to being a part of the robbery, just not a part of the related robbery shooting. So he's already admitted to being a criminal at this point. Ah mothers...