First Gun Victims' Discovered

One of the first gun victims in the Americas. Researchers think Spanish conquistadors are to blame for the death, caused by a lead bullet. CREDIT: AP

WASHINGTON (AP) — The musket blast was sudden and deadly, the killing nearly 500 years ago of what may have been the first gunshot victim in the Western Hemisphere.
“We didn't expect it. We saw this skull and saw the almost round hole and thought people must have been shooting around here recently,” said Guillermo Cock, an archaeologist who found the remains near Lima, Peru.
But he realized that the skull was ancient, and a recent bullet strike would simply have shattered it, Cock said in a telephone interview.