Two Domestic Terrorist Attacks Documented with Leica ScanStation

Killeen, Texas Police Department forensic team, using a Leica Geosystems 3D scanner, plays a crucial role in crime scene mapping of two notorious high-profile incidents: the Ft. Hood shooting and the suicide plane crash into the Austin, Texas IRS building.

Killeen, Texas—Shortly after 1:30 on the afternoon of November 5, 2009, police at the sprawling U.S. Army base at Fort Hood, Texas, alerted area law enforcement agencies of an active shooter on the post —possibly more than one— resulting in mass casualties. Within minutes, Dennis Baldwin, Chief of Police of Killeen, a city of 130,000 directly adjacent to the post, set up an Incident Command Center and contacted the Fort Hood police to offer assistance.

鲍德温酋长在基林警察局任职27年，对可怕的罪行并不陌生。十八年前，一名狂热的男子撞到了附近的卢比餐厅，然后他用两把半自动手枪杀死了23人，并在自杀之前又伤了20人。这项事件是美国历史上一名枪手最致命的枪击事件，直到2007年弗吉尼亚理工大学大屠杀32名学生和员工。

鲍德温解释说：“我们中的几个人经历了卢比的大屠杀，”我们知道人们在现场正在经历什么。在那些情况下，起初存在很多混乱和错误信息。我们知道最好的事情是伸出援手，但不要妨碍您。”

The Fort Hood authorities requested a tactical response team and assistance in stopping traffic coming onto the post. The Tactical Response Unit responded to assist in securing the area and search for any additional suspects, while surrounding agencies assisted KPD in traffic management near the post’s entrances. Fort Hood is one of the largest military installations in the world, covering 350 square miles and serving as home to 55,000 military personnel. Shortly thereafter, the base’s Criminal Investigation Division made a second request of Chief Baldwin: to send his department’s forensic team with its recently acquired Leica Geosystems’ 3D Laser Scanner.

“We were the first—and at that time the only—agency here in Texas to have a scanner, and the Fort Hood police had become aware of its remarkable capabilities,” Baldwin said. “We immediately deployed our team.”

“我们在枪击事件发生后的一个小时内就在那里，”带领球队的侦探基思·德罗兹（Keith Drozd）（与罗斯的押韵）。“这是一个非常高的压力环境，人们到处都是。当然，我去过的最大的犯罪现场是足球场的六座建筑物，几乎是建筑物两边的停车场。外面到处都有医疗用具，地面上到处都是鲜血。窗户破了，人们把椅子扔在玻璃杯上逃脱。死者仍然在建筑物内部，但射手也来到了外面并枪杀了人们。一些受伤的人仍在接受治疗。”

Drozd and his team went to work, scanning both inside the buildings and outside, taking advantage of the ScanStation’s robust long-range measurement capability. Their mapping work was crucial. Although the FBI, which soon took charge of the investigation, had several laser scanners, two were in use in Iraq and the others were back at FBI headquarters in Virginia. Regional agency investigators had only a total station, which they brought to the scene.

“我们结束后第二天,扫描,我们米et with an FBI computer technician,” Drozd recalls. “He works a lot with CAD programs (Computer Assisted Design) and we were able to download to his computer all the scan data we had collected. We later learned that (with a technical assist from Leica Geosystems) the FBI was able to generate an impressive presentation that they showed to President Obama during a White House briefing. It was an honor to have given them that data to show the president.”

Drozd credits the Leica ScanStation’s ease of use for giving his team confidence even while working in a highly charged environment under a national spotlight. “I can’t imagine how hard documenting a crime scene like Fort Hood would be without this Leica scanner. Using only tape measures, a total station and a plumb bob would have taken us days. With the ScanStation, even though your anxiety level is high and there’s immense pressure to get it right, you know this is a very easy instrument to operate.”

首席鲍德温表示赞同:“佛rt Hood shooting, with its massive crime scene, really showed us what tremendous capabilities the Leica ScanStation has. The agencies in our area quickly came to realize how important the technology is to forensically mapping these very difficult crime scenes."

在胡德堡枪击事件发生三个月后，基林警察局的法医团队再次被要求协助一次引人注目的事件，这是德克萨斯州奥斯汀的这一事件，位于基林以南75英里处。2010年2月18日，上午9:56，一家自杀，心怀不满的纳税人安德鲁·约瑟夫·斯塔克（Andrew Joseph Stack）故意将他的派珀·达科塔（Piper Dakota）飞机驾驶到一个七层楼的办公楼，其中包含内部税收服务现场办公室。碰撞引起了巨大的火球和爆炸，这导致后来猜测Stack在起飞前用航空燃料的桶取代了飞机上的乘客座椅。撞车事故杀死了Stack和一名IRS办公室工作人员，并重伤了13人，两人认真对待。Drozd侦探和三名侦探立即做出了反应。

As it happened, at the time of the crash the FBI’s major incident crime scene investigation unit was holding a staff meeting at its regional office in the building right next door. The chief investigator, who was familiar with the Killeen Police Department’s outstanding work with its Leica 3D laser scanner during the Fort Hood incident, immediately contacted the KPD and asked for their forensic team and scanner to come to the crash scene. Detective Drozd and three detectives responded immediately.

Arriving on scene, Drozd once again found himself working literally in the glare of spotlights surrounded by a media circus. “There were plenty of news trucks with satellite dishes and reporters and camera crews everywhere. The whole front of the building was shattered, blown and burned. We set up just outside the perimeter of a debris field that was about seventy yards wide and sixty yards deep. Filing cabinets, office furniture, glass and wreckage that had been blown from the building were scattered everywhere.”

Drozd’s team was soon joined by Austin resident and Leica Geosystems trainer Karen Hughes, who lives just 15 minutes from the IRS building and who volunteered to provide any assistance that might be needed during the scanning. The crime scene they faced this time differed significantly from the Fort Hood setting. Here the primary focus was a large gaping hole in the front of the building between the third and fourth story.

“Just behind us was a large dirt embankment, maybe thirty feet high,” Drozd explained. “What had happened was the plane actually hit the embankment first and exploded—the front end of the aircraft bounced up and into the window while the back end hit a large steel support beam. We were facing a forensic scene unlike any we’d had before.”

“There was no possible way that investigators could have mapped the damage to the side of that building with traditional measuring tools, let alone even accessed it,” Drozd explained. “The collision opening was three stories above us and no one was allowed inside until engineers had determined it would not collapse. We worked our way across the building front and captured multiple scans. The Leica ScanStation performed flawlessly.”

The ScanStation’s data files for both the Fort Hood and Austin crime scenes were essential elements of the evidence gathered in both incidents. In the Fort Hood shooting, a single assailant, Army Major Nidal Hasan, was charged. That case has not yet gone to trial, but the Leica ScanStation data files will be used to generate numerous exhibits for use in that court proceeding when it does take place.

“Regardless of what crimes our detectives are responsible for processing,” explained Chief Baldwin, “It’s nice to know that the Leica ScanStation is capable of handling it. The system is easy to use and quickly provides forensic mapping and allows detectives to virtually ‘return’ to the crime scene for investigative follow-up. My detectives believe it is truly a remarkable system. Moreover, there’s no better method to present a case in a court room.”

While the Killeen Police Department has used its Leica 3D scanner on numerous major crimes, its successful experience deploying the system in the extremely challenging crime scene environments presented by the Fort Hood shooting and the Austin plane crash provided a powerful validation of the Leica ScanStation’s formidable capabilities. “Unfortunately in today’s society, we are seeing horrific crimes committed,” Chief Baldwin concluded. “These crime scenes can be very difficult to process. Having a system that can forensically measure these scenes is invaluable to the law enforcement mission. I believe other police chiefs are realizing this
事实，也是如此。

Written by Tony Grissim