“The Beaten Man With His Arm, Feet and Back Bruised”

A forensic expert and a friend of Dmitry Uskhopov commented on his death.

Dmitry Uskhopov, 28 years old, a resident of Rechytsa, died in the emergency room of the district hospital. Relatives of the deceased say that on the night of January 1, he was detained by a police patrol. The man allegedly "disobeyed" during the detention. Dmitry's relatives believe the guy was beaten by the police and had water poured over him.

Pictures of Dmitry Uskhopov's body appeared on the Internet. A friend of the deceased confirmed the authenticity of those photos to Belsat.

Zerkalo.io showed the photos to Nadezhda Gurmanchuk, a forensic expert with more than a decade of experience, and asked her to comment on injuries on the body and the causes of death.

Briefly: the photographs show bodily injuries but the cause of death can only be ascertained after a full forensic examination.

Dmitry's relatives claim a head injury was "either a result of a single blow to the head or a shot from an air gun".

- There are injuries on the head in the area of the left brow," says the expert. - The nature of the injury mentioned makes it impossible to ascertain whether it is a skin abrasion or a wound. However, judging by the type of injury, one can say that it might have been caused by a blunt hard object with a limited traumatic surface.

- Do traumatic bullets fall into that category?

- Yes, they do. A bullet causes mechanical damage to soft tissue and will act as a blunt hard object with a limited traumatic surface. But only a full forensic examination of the corpse can prove a bullet-caused wound. Likewise the presence or absence of a head injury. It can't be ascertained from the photo.

There were also injuries on the deceased's hands and feet.

- There were bruises on the hands and wrists and the front surface of the left knee joint. Some of these were striped in the wrist area, indicating that they might have been caused by handcuffs. Other bruises are oval and circular caused by blunt hard objects. It is not possible to specify this traumatic object.

- There is lividity on the back of the body," explains the specialist. - The pervasive nature and localisation of areas of lividity and brightening on the protruding parts of the torso indicate this. There are also drying areas of skin in the rump area caused by postmortem detachment or rupture of skin when the deceased comes into contact with a table or wet surface. No credible signs of any injuries were found on the back.

The forensic expert considers that all the injuries on the head, hands and feet indicate that they occurred shortly before death. According to her, it does not contradict the information that Dmitry died on the night of December 31 to January 1.

- It is impossible to identify the cause of death from the injuries shown on the photos," says Nadezhda. - To ascertain the cause of death, a full forensic medical examination is required, including an internal one and additional examinations if necessary. The photos show that the corpse has already undergone a forensic examination.

Friend: "I'm sure he didn't use any drugs"

The propaganda channels on Telegram have spread information that drugs were involved in the story. Aleksei, a friend of the deceased, claims he did not use any psychoactive substances.

- We've been friends with Dima for 16 years. We played football together and other sports. He was a good friend. He was like a brother to me! And I am sure that he did not use drugs. The last time I called him was at 10:46 p.m.; he sounded drunk and said he was standing at a bus stop with a common acquaintance. The next morning I learned of his death, and it happened that we, friends, informed the relatives. I saw his body in the morgue. I have no words to describe it. It was the man with arms, legs, back bruised, a bloody abrasion above his left temple. I'm just sure there was an abuse of power," Aleksei said.