As Platt climbed out of the passenger side car window, one of Dove's 9 mm rounds (Winchester 115gr Silvertip) hit his right upper arm and went on to penetrate his chest, stopping an inch away from his heart. The autopsy found Platt’s right lung was collapsed and his chest cavity contained 1.3 liters of blood, suggesting damage to the main blood vessels of the right lung. Of his many gunshot wounds, this first was the primary injury responsible for Platt’s eventual death.
Dove's 9 mm pistol was rendered inoperative after being hit by one of Platt's bullets. Hanlon fired at Platt and was shot in the hand while reloading. Grogan and Dove were kneeling alongside the driver’s side of their car. Both were preoccupied with getting Dove's gun running and did not detect that Platt was aggressively advancing upon them. When Platt rounded the rear of their car he killed Grogan with a shot to the chest, shot Hanlon in the groin area and then killed Dove with two shots to the head.