Entrance, exit, and reentrance of one shot with a shotgun

The case being reported is one of a homicidal shotgun fatality with an unus ual wound pattern. A 34-year-old man was shot at close range with a 12-gaug e shotgun armed with No. 5 birdshot ammunition. The shot entered the left a xillary region, exited through the left infraclavicular region, and thereaf ter penetrated the left side of the neck, causing tearing of the left commo n carotid artery and the right internal carotid artery. The entrance wound in the axilla was larger than the other wounds, and before autopsy it was b elieved that the shotgun had been fired twice, causing one wound in the nec k and one wound perforating the infraclavicular region and exiting through the left axillary region. Thus, this case shows that unusual wound patterns in shotgun fatalities can easily lead to incorrect assumptions with regard to number and direction of shots fired unless thorough investigation is ca rried out postmortem.