Yesterday, I watched with horror a video of the Charlie Hebdo shooting in Paris in which a policeman was shot in the head from inches away with a semi-automatic weapon. Something just didn’t look right about the video though, so I decided to slow it down and see if a frame-by-frame analysis would help me understand what I was seeing. What I found is hard to believe, so I’m presenting it to you – perhaps you can make sense of it. Here are the relevant frames from the video:
This is a picture from the front page of today’s Wall Street Journal. This depicts the scene less than a second before the officer was fatally shot: 
This is a screenshot from the video itself. This depicts the scene within one second before shot was fired (less than a second after the picture above):
Here is a screen shot of the video a millisecond after the shot was fired killing the cop – see the puff of smoke to the right? That looked like dust or something coming up off the sidewalk after the bullet was fired. View the video at the bottom of this post to really understand this. Pay attention to the time stamps – this all happens in seconds 0:12 and 0:13 – it is very clear that the shot is fired just before that puff of dust comes up off the sidewalk…
Here is a clearer picture of this scene from The Wall Street Journal – you can clearly see the puff of smoke coming up off the sidewalk after the shot was fired, yet look at the policeman – he is not wounded from the bullet. If the impact of the bullet can be seen in the puff of smoke, why can’t the fatal injuries to the officer be seen? How is he still holding himself up?
Here is the scene a full second after the shot was fired. The officer has collapsed but as we see above he wasn’t actually shot by that bullet since he maintained a pleading posture even after the sidewalk was impacted.
Here is the video so you can see these scenes in motion and hear the shots. All the relevant action takes place in seconds 12 and 13.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=i-FFx7Xy0Uo&bpctr=1420745066
Here is a close-up of the picture from wsj-online of just after the shot is fired – dust flies yet the cop is still alive – and it seems like he is focusing on something in his hand. What is that?
I’ll be talking about this live at my normal time Saturday 3PM-6PM ET on WSB. [Update: If you missed the show, don’t worry, I’ve posted the podcast here. Sign up for my extremely low volume emails in the upper right of this page and you will get an email when a new podcast is up-you can also like me on facebook as I post them there too.]
UPDATE: Here’s a video that goes into this further:
And here is another item of interest:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=W26uPD0ZNw8
Charlie Hebdo investigator Helric Fredou kills himself hours after massacre
Hello,
some news?
Most military surplus amao is non expanding so that may have something to do with it also If you die instantly your heart stops pumping so there would not be much blood from a head wound at that range .I have watched a police put down a injured Deer with military ammo very little blood and just a small hole where it went in and out
P.S the deer had ben hit by a car and it’s back legs were broke .It was in pain and nothing could be done
I’m not focused on the blood – just the fact that the policeman is in a pleading position AFTER the fatal shot is fired and produces a puff of smoke off the sidewalk. I can imagine a scenario in which you could not see blood, but I cannot imagine a scenario in which the policeman could remain pleading for his life after he was hit by a fatal shot from an AK47 less than a foot away from him. If the sidewalk was impacted, why wasn’t the officer?
And did you notice that it appears that the gunman/driver while running to the getaway car seems to be giving a “high five” or “guns up” twice to someone left and center screen. It can clearly be seen at :25 thru :27 Just my observation.
Help us Uncle Sam! Protect us from the scary monster of the week! If we could only make the government a little stronger, then we will be safe. It’s our only hope against the terrible monsters that threaten us! Everyone pull together and forget about your selfish desires, so that we can not be afraid!
What you believe to be a puff of smoke is most likely dust or particles of the pavement being kicked up from the bullet that had traveled through the Police Officers skull. The fact that appears the officer is still alive after the shot is the bullet traveled faster than his body collapsing.
And the particles of the pavement being kicked up from the bullet travel faster than the body collapsing too?
The bullet is traveling over 2000 feet per second (supersonic) that’s why the body seemed delayed the round used 7.73 would not have expanded the exit wound would be small. If the shooter used a hollow point 45 blood would spray and matter would fly out. The 773 round from 15 yards plus would begin to tumble and create a larger wound. Good observations though.
My only question is: if the sidewalk visibly showed the impact – as you can see by the dust in the shot – why didn’t the person?
My opinon: First, The Ak-47, is a 7.62×39, not a 7.73 (no such round exists). If it was a Ak 74, by chance then it could have been 7.62 x 54 but that is not likely, seeing it is a much rarer platform. Both are basically a .30 caliber which is in fact a big round, the 54 being a little longer case. They do not in fact tumble, no round does that UNTIL impact. That is asinine and would result in terrible accuracy. Even at close range, the Ak slinging a massive round (The reasoning I purchased one instead of a .223), would have resulted is some extensive damage, especially hitting skull. If it had gone through soft tissue, like throat, or even chest cavity, the results would have been more clean, and neat. Not skull, though, with a 7.62 it should have exploded, blowing matter onto the sidewalk. There are variant of the AK that shoot a .223 which is considerably smaller and faster round that might pass through a head with minimal damage, but I saw the video and heard the reports of the rifle there is no doubt it was a 7.62. The first time I saw it a couple things struck me. 1. No splatter, 2. even at close rang making a perfectly executed head shot while running and hip firing. Even hard to do in Call of Duty with hip fire cross hairs to work with…