A View From the Attic

After a shooter used a powerful semi-automatic rifle to fire dozens of rounds that hit several nearby homes, Fat Pencil was asked to help determine whether an injured neighbor was targeted on purpose or if the strike was accidental.

To understand what happened, Fat Pencil developed a 3D model that we used to locate bullet strikes and to add sightlines that showed whether the injured victim was ever visible to the shooter.

Birdseye view of the neighborhood showing where shots were fired and where bullet strikes were located on adjacent houses.

A simple model helps us understand where to invest time in adding further detail.

Later in the case, we compared our original 3D model (based solely on ground level and aerial photos of the scene) with a laser scan survey provided by law enforcement. For the most part, the scans confirmed the accuracy of our original model, though the laser scans also allowed us to see the elevation difference between the two houses and to make vertical corrections that were not obvious from scene photographs.

Although highly accurate, laser scans can be complicated to use and often contain more information than is necessary to tell a visual story. Laser scans may also fail to capture transparent and reflective surfaces, and in this case did not clearly show that the bottom half of the injured victim’s front window was obscured by a piece of reflective foam insulation. This was important because the shot that caused the injury was fired through the closed front door, and the partially obscured window offered the only view into the first floor of the house.

Although highly accurate for measurements, laser scans often capture more details than are needed and may misrepresent transparent and reflective surfaces.

From the shooter’s point of view, scene photographs showed the distribution of interior bullet strikes and shell casings, indicating that the shots had been fired from the middle of the upstairs room and away from the window.

Shots fired from an upstairs window.

However, since we did not know exactly where the shooter was standing, we connected the corners of the two windows to create sightlines that show the full range of what might have been visible from the attic looking into the neighboring house.

Based on statements from the injured neighbor, we described how they walked through their house and where they were standing when they were shot. The sightlines suggest that the shooter would have only been able to see the far right wall of the neighboring house.

The sightlines and statements by the injured neighbor suggest that they never passed through any areas inside the house that were visible to the shooter. This, combined with the unfocused distribution of bullet strikes, supported the theory that the shooter was indeed firing indiscriminately towards their window instead of at a specific target next door.

Understanding what someone could have seen is often critical for developing a cohesive narrative as well as knowing when an alleged story doesn't make sense. In this case, our 3D model allowed us to test and refute theories about visibility that helped our client settle their case.

Kalin Schmoldt is a Designer at Fat Pencil Studio