Attention crime scene investigators, detectives and all of those personnel involved in investigating shooting incidents; there is a new weapon in your arsenal of how to develop leads and solve cases, it is the XCAT Gunshot Residue Detection Kit. I have personally utilized this kit in teaching shooting reconstruction in a dozen courses across the country as well as tested it within my own laboratory, and could not be more pleased with the results.
The XCAT is easy to use and it provides accurate results immediately in the field, and the test strips can be sent for confirmatory testing, which allow clear admission into the courts for probable cause determinations. Not only is the methodology reliable for preseumptive gunshot residue testing on the hands of shooters and handlers of fired weapons, but is also senstivite enough to detect GSR on clothing worn by the shooter, as well as on the face and other exposed skin of the shooter. In numerous testing scenarios, the XCAT was even able to detect the passive transfer of GSR from simply handling a fired weapon, in subjects who were initially negative for GSR, who then testing positive for GSR, asfter simply handling the fired weapon.
This flexibility of the XCAT provides immediate results early in an investigation without the hassles and time delays that are typically associated with the traditional scanning electron microscopy testing methodology. The XCAT gives crime-solving personnel a huge advantage early in their investigations, when the clock is ticking on the ability to detect the tansient GSR trace evidence on a potential suspect in a shooting scenario. Any agency that is tasked with investigating shooting cases should have this weapon in their arsenal of solving shooting scenario cases. Every subspecialty in forensics has its own special tools; blood and body fluid detection have DNA testing, bloodstain analysts looking for invisible blood have BlueStar Forensics for latent blood identification, and now, shooting scenario case solvers have the power of the XCAT GSR Detection Kit.
Don’t let your evidence get washed or worn away and your case go cold because you are waiting for approval to get some GSR stubs sent off to your crime lab for GSR testing by scanning electron microscopy. Try the XCAT and see how you develop more investigative leads and save personnel time by using this powerful weapon in real time to guide your investigation.
About Jan Johnson
Jan Johnson is retired from the State of Florida with over forty years experience in law enforcement. After ten years with the F.B.I., Jan made the transition to crime scene analysis. She is recognized by the IAI as a Certified Senior Crime Scene Analyst and worked for FDLE in Pensacola, Florida for over twenty-two years. As a laboratory analyst and crime scene examiner, her field of experience includes detection, collection, and preservation of physical evidence, bloodstain pattern interpretation, trajectory analysis, buried body and skeletal remains recovery, clandestine laboratories, and numerous other procedures involving crime scene investigations. Due to her expertise in bloodstain pattern interpretation and crime scene reconstruction and analysis, Jan has testified in hundreds of criminal cases as an expert witness. Before retiring in 2004, Jan spent three years with the Escambia County Sheriff’s Office as supervisor of the Crime Scene and Latent Print units, as well as overseer of ECSO’s new crime lab, which she designed. Jan served in the highly distinguished role of President of the IAI in 2004, and Chairman of the Board in 2005, and considers herself honored to have been on the IAI’s original Crime Scene Certification Board. Jan has served as President for the Florida Division of the IAI in 2007 as well as Chairman of the Board in 2008. She continues to serve on various committees within both the IAI and FDIAI. Jan has taught numerous courses in the areas of both Crime Scene and Bloodstain Pattern Interpretation and Crime Scene Reconstruction in the United States and abroad, including South Africa, Brazil, and Bermuda.