An autopsy of Kenneth Bailey Jr., who was fatally shot by Durham Police on February 15, shows he was shot in the left side of his upper back.
The autopsy, conducted by the Office of the State Medical Examiner, says that same bullet traveled upward, punctured both of his lungs, and was found lodged near his right shoulder, suggesting he had been shot from the side and by someone at a lower angle. Although the autopsy notes damage to the vessels surrounding Bailey’s heart, it says the heart itself was intact.
Durham Police have maintained that Bailey, fleeing, had pointed a gun at them before officers fired the fatal shots. His family, in conducting their own interviews of residents in the Club Boulevard neighborhood where he was shot, says no witnesses reported hearing officers tell Bailey to drop a weapon. Instead they say they heard him “plead for his life between shots.”
According to the autopsy, Bailey was also shot in the front of the right lower leg. The medical examination doesn’t provide any clues on whether Bailey was first shot in the leg or the back. There was no soot around either wound, which would have suggested close-range shots.
Here’s the full autopsy report:
