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We heard a few hours ago from Tim Gaffney, the able public information officer for the Pinal County Sheriff’s Office.
He tells us that his agency has decided to reopen the remarkable case involving Deputy Louie Puroll (in photo), which we wrote about in a piece entitled “Pinalcchio,” currently on newstands around the Valley and, of course, on this Web site.
Here is a copy of the news release that Mr. Gaffney has sent us.
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Apparently, the bloody teeshirt the deputy was wearing when he sustained a grazing gunshot wound to his left flank on the afternoon of April 30, 2010, will now be sent up to the Arizona Department of Public Safety for analysis.
“If in fact a rifle was fired at Deputy Puroll within a few inches as Dr.Baden and Dr. Spitz have concluded, burn marks and residue will be present on the shirt,” the release concludes.
Not necessarily, as we will explain in more detail in future blogs and/or a follow-up story.
But here’s food for thought:
There’s no telling if the deputy was wearing another shirt (probably a long-sleeved, per department regulations, while patrolling in the desert) over the teeshirt when the shooting occurred,
Photos of Deputy Puroll taken after the incident show no scratches, bruises, cuts, or even dirt marks on either of his arms. Forensics experts tell us that there surely would have been some sign of minor injuries to his exposed arms based on Puroll’s own account to detectives of almost constantly moving, crawling, staying low, and generally hunkering down in the Vekol Valley desert for more than an hour after calling 911.
Yet we are encouraged that the county agency — which was cooperative with us during our months-long investigation into the case (short of allowing the Puroll to do a sitdown with us) — is doing this.
