Howard Payne Criminal Justice Students Investigate Mock Crime Scene

April 11, 2014 at 10:57 pm brownwoodnewsstaff

Life

Howard Payne University criminal justice students participated in a mock crime scene investigation on Friday.

According to HPU Department of Public Safety Chief and Criminal Justice professor Paul Lilly, students of the Criminal Investigations class were able to put the skills they have learned in the class to work in a real world scenario. Lilly stated that the evidence in a staged mock crime scene was left for the students to analyze, gather evidence and determine what they felt had happened in the rear parking lot of the university’s Academy of Freedom campus.

Lilly stated that evidence would, if gathered correctly, point the students to determine that a drive by shooting had occurred and that the gun lying beside the victim was actually used in defense. The suspect had opened the door of his/her vehicle and shot at the victim, and when the victim shot back, two key pieces of evidence had fallen from the vehicle which should point them to the correct conclusion.

“The purpose of the exercise is to teach these students what they will be doing out in their career in law enforcement,” said Lilly.

He explained that these students are mostly juniors and seniors who have completed classes such as Crime in America, Legal Aspects, and Ethics to name just a few. Through these classes, students learn how to gather the evidence without destroying it, determine through evidence gathered what occurred, and to ethically and legally gather and process the evidence and testimony gathered in a crime.

Lilly stated that the Howard Payne criminal justice program has grown to just shy of 100 students this year, of those students 75-80 are criminal justice majors.

Pictured above and below are students along with Lilly investigating the mock crime scene. Another criminal justice class along with their instructor Lynn Humeniuk, pictured at the bottom of the article, toured the Brown County Law Enforcement Center, which houses the Brown County Jail, on Friday morning.