Two brothers (J. V. and E. V.) aged 9 and 7 were visiting their grandparents. The two of them were riding a children’s scooter (Fig. 2a). Nothing was out of the ordinary until E. V. suddenly ran into the house frightened and said that J. V. fell off the scooter and is crying and cannot get up. J. V.’s health condition deteriorated rapidly, and his grandmother called emergency medical service in panic. Upon their arrival, J. V. showed no life signs and death was confirmed. The coroner registered a wound on the left lateral side of the chest and assumed that the wound was a result of falling onto the scooter handlebar (Fig. 2b). The coroner suggested that the fractured rib injured the thoracic organs, and the crime scene investigation by the police was started in that direction. In Croatia, the coroner is a physician and, exceptionally, another qualified health care provider who is specially trained to examine the body of the deceased person and to determine the time and cause of death. In this case, the coroner was a young, unexperienced nurse. The coroner determined that the death was accidental, and in that case, autopsy was not mandatory. Upon the arrival of an experienced police inspector, the cause of J. V.’s death was called into question. The inspector photographed the wound using his mobile phone and sent the photographs to a forensic pathologist. After examining the photographs, the forensic pathologist concluded that the wound was most likely a gunshot wound. Such conclusion by the pathologist turned the police investigation in the right direction—to search for the weapon. Only after the phone correspondence with the forensic pathologist was shown to the boy’s grandparents did the grandfather admit that he had left a loaded air gun in his backyard shed, a gun that he used for pest control. At the very beginning of the police investigation, the grandfather did not even consider that the air gun could be the source of this fatal event, and he put it away in the house because of the crowd that started gathering in their backyard and because of the arrival of police, since he had not registered the air gun at the police department. During the crime scene investigation, E. V. stated that, while J. V. was riding a scooter, he approached the table where the gun had been left. He said that he only slightly touched the gun without raising it towards J. V. In that moment, he saw his brother falling off the scooter and ran to his grandparents for help.
Autopsy revealed an entrance gunshot wound on the left lateral side of chest, below the 5th rib, 4 mm in diameter (Figs. 3a, b and 4a). The wound path ran through the left lung (Fig. 4b), heart (Fig. 4c), and diaphragm, and a pointed lead pellet (caliber 4.5 mm) was found deep in the liver (Figs. 4d and 5a, b).
A legal proceeding was started against the boy’s grandfather for the offense of “Endangerment to Life and Property by a Generally Dangerous Act or Means” (Article 215 of the Croatian Criminal Code).