The Tribune

By PAVEL BAILEY

Tribune Staff Reporter

pbailey@tribunemedia.net

A FIREARMS and ballistics expert said a second shooting sequence could have occurred when footage showed Azario Major was shot and CSI investigators arrived.

Dr Richard Pumerantz, of the US-based Guns & Ammo Witness Consulting, testified about the matter as the Coroner’s Court inquest into the December 26, 2021, killing of Azario Major continued yesterday.

After slowing surveillance footage to a playback speed of 0.33 to capture muzzle flashes, Dr Pumerantz said only one officer shot Azario. He concluded this because there were only nine flashes, each from the gun of an officer wearing a Dallas Cowboys jersey.

He said the position of Major’s body in the footage –– face down on the road, parallel to his car with his right foot caught between the doorframe –– is consistent with him falling or rolling out of the car.

Crime scene photos of Azario on the ground, however, showed his body at a 45-degree angle from the door and his shirt pulled up. Dr Pumerantz said this suggests Azario’s body had been repositioned.

He suggested the body was repositioned between when his surveillance footage ended, and CSI investigators arrived on scene.

He also highlighted what he called an anomaly: gunshot wounds to Azario’s right forearm and head when there was no shooter on the right side of the vehicle.

The gunshot wounds and the alleged repositioning of Azario’s body prompted Dr Pumerantz to raise the possibility of a second shooting after the body was repositioned.

“It appears to me in my opinion that this second firing sequence happened after the video was stopped. We cannot be certain of this due to the absence of video but what we can say is that the body was repositioned,” he said.

“Had he had a firearm in his hand it would have been damaged, there would have been damage to the firearm. There is no evidence that a projectile hit this pistol,” he added.