• In a typical officer-involved shooting, the shooting officer(s) will attempt to justify their deadly force by claiming the person shot was an “imminent threat” to the officers’ safety stating further that he either squared off with them, made a furtive gesture, reached for his waistband, or even reached for a gun or a weapon. However, police officers are trained that deadly force can only be used when objectively faced with an immediate threat of deadly harm or serious bodily injuries. That being said, a bullet trajectory analysis can either confirm or discredit a shooting officer’s version of the shooting by placing the decedent’s position away from the shooter, for example, when a person is shot in the back, contradicting the officer’s claims, that the suspect was charging at the officer with a knife in his hand. These are critical determinations that only well trained civil rights attorney can pick up on and help you win a shooting case when only one side of the story has been told, that of the shooting officer.