ATF Forensic Lab DNA Evidence Helped Convict Killer of Chicago Officer Aréanah Preston
DNA from shell casings at the scene of Officer Aréanah Preston's 2023 murder led to the conviction of Joseph Brooks. ABC7 Chicago got an exclusive look at the ATF lab behind the breakthrough.
ATF lab DNA analysis identified the man who shot Chicago Police Officer Aréanah Preston
DNA recovered from shell casings at the scene of a Chicago police officer's murder was the critical piece of evidence that led to the conviction of her killer, abc7chicago.com reports.
Officer Aréanah Preston was shot and killed in May 2023. Joseph Brooks subsequently pleaded guilty to first-degree murder in April this year.
"Dozens of shell casings were recovered from that scene," said Chicago Police Department Chief of Detectives Kevin Bruno. DNA found on casings fired by Preston's killer proved to be, in Bruno's words, "the lynch pin" to identifying Brooks.
Bruno told the ABC7 I-Team the result would not have been possible a decade ago. "As technology continues to evolve, it allows us the opportunity to leverage our detective experience with the technology to build stronger, more sustainable cases," he said.
Chicago police work closely with ATF through the Crime Gun Intelligence Center, a joint operation focused on rapidly turning around leads from shootings across the city. The murder of a police officer accelerated that collaboration.
Some of the shell casings were flown to ATF's Forensic Laboratory in Maryland, outside Washington, D.C., where scientists developed multiple DNA profiles from the evidence, Bruno explained.
The ABC7 I-Team was granted rare access to that same facility, where evidence from the country's highest-profile shooting, arson and explosives cases is processed. Michelle Evans, who leads the lab, said advances in technique have significantly raised its capabilities.
"Over the years, we have really refined our techniques so that our sensitivity is amazing and we are able to now identify multiple different potential suspects or DNA profiles," Evans said.
The lab routinely handles material containing only trace amounts of human DNA — quantities that would have been undetectable in earlier forensic workflows — allowing investigators to build cases that were previously out of reach.
Source: Google News MT — Crime (en)