Computer network contains nearly 3 million images of ballistic evidence
By Amy Friedenberger
The Roanoke Times
ROANOKE, Va. (AP) - For a few months this summer, gunshots drew Roanoke police officers to the area around Chapman Avenue multiple times.
Twice, an ambulance took the same 21-year-old man to the hospital to treat gunshot wounds. In one of those shootings, paramedics also loaded a woman who had been shot into an ambulance.
Other times, officers rushed to the street in the West End neighborhood for reports of gunfire with no injuries but found casings littering the ground.
In each incident, investigators scooped up any shell casings they could find so they could be entered into a massive database operated since 1999 by the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives.
The database, called the National Integrated Ballistic Information Network, contains nearly 3 million images of ballistic evidence collected from crime scenes or test-fired from guns used in crimes.
The computer software, by combing through the network and identifying probable matches to casings, could help identify any links between the Chapman Avenue shootings.
Police departments like Roanoke's have embraced the technology, submitting any firearms evidence investigators find. However, they have to wait months to get results from the forensic lab, which could be valuable in solving cases that can go cold within days.
Ballistics evidence from the Western District of Virginia joins a queue of other submissions at the state Department of Forensic Science in Richmond, which hosts a NIBIN terminal.
But this winter, the state lab in Roanoke County will once again operate a NIBIN machine. The Western Laboratory has been without a machine since 2011, when the ATF cut the program budget and started removing machines.
"Cases don't go cold so fast if you're able to get results back fast," said Sgt. David Morris, supervisor of the major crimes unit in Roanoke. "You're able to utilize those leads in an investigation while it's still fresh."
The department is crossing its fingers that the Richmond lab will send back results toward the end of the year for evidence in cases that happened months ago. Morris sends evidence for submission into the federal database once a week.
Among those submissions is evidence from last month's FreightCar America shooting. Police have said Getachew Fekede, 53, a former employee at the rail car manufacturer, shot three workers - one fatally - and grazed a fourth before killing himself. Through NIBIN, police can confirm that the casings found at the scene match the handgun found there.
"You don't want to leave any stone unturned," Morris said. "In these cases, the investigation goes from investigating for a prosecution to investigating for closure so you can provide some closure to family members."
There are only about 160 NIBIN terminals in the country. Virginia has three others, at the forensic labs in Richmond and Norfolk and the Federal Bureau of Investigation in Quantico. Some states don't have any terminals.
Each time a weapon is fired, signature dents, pings and grooves are left on the ejected shell casings. Firearms examiners say the markings are unique to the gun that produced them. Finding a potential match in NIBIN takes a few hours, then a technician examines each image to look for exact matches. It's not a scientifically proven method, but experts believe the technology is reliable, and the ATF has cited numerous success stories.
"It's a lot like fingerprints," said Wendy Gibson, forensic scientist supervisor in the firearms department at the Virginia Department of Forensic Science's Western Laboratory in Roanoke County.
Even if the system flags a probable match, it only puts the gun at the scene of a crime. It doesn't place whoever pulled the trigger. That's where traditional detective work comes in.
"It would let us know if we have a crime series going on," Morris said. "Because if you keep seeing the same shell casings and bullets at certain crimes, you either know it's the same group or same individual targeting specific people or areas."
Morris said shooters may quickly sell a gun used in a crime so it's out of their hands. Sometimes a group of people will share a few different guns. Morris said some savvier criminals have even begun to pick up shell casings if they have the time to do so or use revolvers, which don't eject shell casings.
The ATF is working with local law enforcement agencies to encourage them to use the network. The agency says the system can give local law enforcement an advantage in preventing street violence by identifying the small number of people behind a disproportionate number of shootings.
But police have to pursue all gun offenses similarly in order to build a "comprehensive collection" to find matches, said James Ferguson, chief of the Firearms Operation Division at ATF. If police only submit casings from homicides or injuries, they miss out on tracking other shootings or those carrying firearms and are prohibited from doing so.
"The more you put into it, the more you get out of it," Ferguson said.
Timeliness is also important, Ferguson said. Gun crime trails can go cold in a matter of days, so quickly pushing out leads to investigators may make a difference in an investigation.
Morris said Roanoke police submits evidence for "any casings we can get our hands on." With the issue of timeliness, Morris and Gibson both hope to see results returning to police faster once the machine is added to the Western Laboratory this winter.
The ATF doesn't track how many hits in the system result in arrests or convictions. It's too early for Roanoke police to say what kind of effect the technology is having on crime in the city.
Morris hopes those results coming back in the next few months for shooting cases earlier in the year may give detectives new leads on investigations that have gone inactive.
Published: Mon, Nov 14, 2016
