If Bullet
"C2 to C7" are the bones of the neck, not the back. The neck has seven: C1 sits right under the skull and C7 is the bump at the base of the neck. The filing lists no damage to the spine of the back.
If Bullet · Step 1
Each neck bone has a solid block at the front that carries the weight of the head, and a ring of bone behind it that guards the spinal cord. From C2 down to C7 is about four inches.
The examiner's words describe two injuries here: the bones, and the cord inside them. We look at his left side, the side of the wound.
If Bullet · Step 2
"obliterate[ed] the left side of the C2-7 vertebrae and transect[ed] the cervical spinal cord"Exhibit 11, page 3, as quoted. Square brackets are the prosecutors' edits.
"[a] significant portion of [Mr. Kirk's] cervical spinal cord [was] traumatically absent"Exhibit 11, pages 3 and 4, as quoted
Obliterated: the left half of six bones in a row, destroyed. Transected: the cord cut through. Traumatically absent: a length of it gone. The model shows the missing length as an example span; exactly where it was missing is in the sealed report.
Source: State's Exhibit 11, as quoted
If Bullet · Step 3
The entry sat low on the front of the neck, about level with the ring just below the Adam's apple. A path from there, dropping 4 to 10 degrees as it runs back (about 9 by the sworn figures, about 6 by published estimates), reaches the spine around C6 and C7, the bottom of the neck.
Some analyses put the entry higher, near C4 and C5 on the side of the neck. Even from there, a downward path meets the spine around C5, still about two inches below C2.
To destroy bone all the way up to C2, the damage must climb about three inches above the place where a near-level path meets the spine.
Source: preliminary hearing, Day 4
If Bullet · Step 4
Drawn in amber is the line a path would need to run from the entry to C2: steeply upward, against a shot fired downward from a roof.
A self-identified surgeon who read the quoted findings wrote that to reach C2 "it would have had to be an upward trajectory from the point of entry." The commenter is anonymous and never examined the body. The geometry does not depend on anyone's credentials: it comes from the State's own words.
If Bullet · Step 5
A rifle round that strikes bone can shatter it and send bone and bullet pieces off in several directions. The head of Charlie's security detail relayed what he says an operating-room doctor told him: the bullet hit a vertebra, "turned, crushed the second one, turned, kept going down all the way. I think they said c six."
Even that account runs down, toward C6, not up to C2. And a round passing through the spine can cut the cord: that part fits a bullet. Cord cut: fits either
Source: Brian Harpole, Shawn Ryan Show, Nov. 17, 2025, relaying a doctor
If Bullet · Step 6
| Finding | If a bullet | |
|---|---|---|
| Left side of C2 to C7 | A near-level or downward path meets one or two bones, not six | Not reached |
| Cord cut through | A round through the spine can cut it | Either |
| A length of cord missing | Needs a wide zone of destruction, not one narrow track | Strains |
Six neck bones in a row, reaching up to just under the skull, is the strongest spine finding against a single round fired downward.
Shaped Charge Explosion
Investigators conclude a small shaped charge in the microphone transmitter on his chest killed him. Here the same neck bones and the same cord are tested against that conclusion.
Shaped Charge · Step 1
The transmitter was on the upper right of his chest, under his shirt, about two inches below his neckline: below the neck. Anything that travels from there to the neck travels upward, at about 45 degrees from level.
On the bullet tab, the amber line showed the path a round would need to reach C2: steeply upward. A blast from the chest is already headed that way.
Shaped Charge · Step 2
Investigators read the damage as spreading from the front-left of the neck, up and back into the column. A zone of destruction, rather than one channel, takes out a long stretch of bone at once: the left side of C7, C6, C5, C4, C3 and C2.
The site's analysis of Exhibit 11 reads six neck bones in a row as what a charge below and in front of the neck does.
Source: Exhibit 11 Analysis
Shaped Charge · Step 3
In autopsy language, "traumatically absent" usually means tissue destroyed and scattered by the injury itself. A long missing length fits a wide zone of destruction better than the narrow track of one round.
When exactly the cord lost continuity cannot be read from the quoted lines. The full report and its images would show how long the missing length was.
Shaped Charge · Step 4
| Finding | If a shaped charge | |
|---|---|---|
| Left side of C2 to C7 | Damage from below and in front climbs a long stretch | Fits |
| Cord cut through | Yes | Fits |
| A length of cord missing | A wide zone of destruction | Fits |
What would settle it: