Hi Tom, I have revisited this a couple times. It is taking a bit for me to get the question straight. I think that I am almost there; but, something throws me off and it may not be that important. I have always thought of the Tague bullet as a problem for the SBT; something that they had to work around and. It is an extra shot that needs to be accounted for and still arrive at the sum of three. Here you are saying that it props the SBT. Can you clarify your point or assertion? I will revisit this.
I agree. The Tague strike conflicts with the SBT.
The SBT is said to have occurred on the second shot with a first missed shot. If so, there were no fragments from it (CE399).
Tague was struck by a fragment that first struck the curb near where he was standing. In order to drop to the curb after striking something in the car and clearing the windshield, it had to have dropped a distance of at least 8 feet to the curb near Tague a distance of about 275 away and farther downhill from the car. It takes .7 seconds to drop 8 feet. So the fragment travelled an average of 275/.7 or 400 feet/second over that distance. That is considerably slower than a first shot that deflected off the road. Bullets don't deflect from tree branches and there was no damage to the metal sign and lamp structures on or over the street. That pretty much eliminates the first shot as a source of Tague's injury.
Tague also said he was not hit on the first shot (7 H 555):
Mr. LIEBELER. Do you have any idea which bullet might have made that mark?
Mr. TAGUE. I would guess it was either the second or third. I wouldn’t say definitely on which one.
So the shot that struck Tague would have to be either 2 or 3.
Tague appears to have eliminated no. 3 (7 H 555):
Mr. LIEBELER. Did you hear any more shots after you felt yourself get hit in the face?
Mr. TAGUE. I believe I did.
Mr. LIEBELER. You think you did?
Mr. TAGUE. I believe I did.
Mr. LIEBELER. How many?
Mr. TAGUE. I believe that it was the second shot, so I heard the third shot afterwards.
Now you may wish to discount Tague's recollection as a 'guess'. But it fits with the evidence of Greer who heard a concussion sound on the second shot (2 H 118):
Mr. SPECTER. Describe as best you can the types of sound of the second report, as distinguished from the first noise which you said was similar to a motorcycle backfire?
Mr. GREER The second one didn’t sound any different much than the first one but I kind of got, by turning around, I don’t know whether I got a little concussion of it, maybe when it hit something or not, I may have gotten a little concussion that made me think there was something different to it. But so far as the noise is concerned, I haven’t got any memory of any difference in them at all.
The 'concussion' he sensed on the second shot and no other shot. Now we know that a fragment struck the windshield and the windshield frame near the top edge. It is difficult to imagine that Greer would not have had some sensation from those strikes as his right ear was only about 2 feet from the points of impact. The fact that Tague said he also struck on the second shot fits with bullet fragments going forward and up from somewhere in the car on the second shot. And that certainly does not fit the SBT.