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ATF Lab Photos of the Engraved Casings

Six-panel forensic laboratory photo grid showing three angles of a fired brass rifle casing and three angles of an unfired cartridge with yellow forensic rulers and handwritten evidence labels

What This Image Shows​

A six-panel forensic laboratory sheet, three photographs across and two down. The top row shows a fired, empty brass bottle-necked rifle casing from three angles; the bottom row shows an unfired cartridge with a copper-jacketed bullet from three angles. Every panel includes a yellow metric forensic ruler and a handwritten evidence label.

The handwritten labels read 2025-W-000401(1) with the initials SK and a date of 09/11/25, marked Lab 2 / ATF 2 on the top row and Lab 3 / ATF 3 on the bottom. The panels are shot at angles chosen to catch light across the brass, because the point of the sheet is the etching on the metal. Individual etched characters are partly legible but not reliably transcribable at this resolution.

The engraved cartridges are one of the strangest elements of the case. According to reporting on the ATF summary, the engravings on the cartridge casings are consistent with having been made by a rotary tool such as a Dremel — a deliberate act with no forensic explanation offered publicly. What the marks say, who made them, and when, are all open questions. The forensic findings on the recovered fragment are at ATF Fragment Inconclusive and ATF Inconclusive Ballistics, and the dispute over subsequent testing is at Ballistics Sealed and CBLA.

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