Grazing bullet wounds on the tongue and liver

A 59-year-old man was shot at the wheel of his car while waiting for a traffic light at an intersection. He was shot through the windshield from a distance of about 1 m. He was pronounced dead on arrival at an emergency hospital. X-ray photographs taken there demonstrated the presence of three bullets within the body. The murder weapon was found to be a thirty-eight caliber revolver. In all, five bullet wounds were recognized, one was located in the right side of the neck, one in the lower part of the left temple, and three on the right side of the body. The wound in the right neck was an entrance bullet wound. The bullet had exited at the left temple, after glancing on the root of the tongue. The three wounds on the right side of the body were all entrance bullet wounds. The fatal bullet entered the right chest cavity at the 7th intercostal space and lacerated the right lung and the ascending aorta after glancing on the right lobe of the liver. The cause of death was hemorrhage from the lacerated aorta. The grazing bullet wounds of the tongue and liver were shallow defects of the tissues with irregular margins.