When I saw the press release, I found myself shaking my head in confusion. I spend many days analyzing the video, researching, and measuring. I'm now left wondering how law enforcement attained their height estimates. The reason I wonder, is because I have arrived at pretty different numbers. So I spent all day yesterday re-measuring and re-estimating. I concluded that the doors in the church must either be
very short (lower than 80"), or LE's numbers are inaccurate. Here are my own results:
So based on my calculations, I believe the subject to be at least
5’8” or taller - not the 5’2”-5’6” reported in the MPD press release on May 20.
To begin, please keep in mind
I do not know the exact height of the doors installed in the Midlothian Church. But from research on
standard and fire-rated door installation heights in public or commercial buildings, plus researching other photographic evidence of the church interior (which contains people, ladders, and other objects of scale), I estimated most of the interior doors to be at minimum
84” (2134mm) in height, giving an approximate doorway height of 87-88” including frame. The doors may be even taller, but are unlikely to be shorter.
Using these estimations, I have calculated various measurements on 5 isolated frames from the surveillance video, each where the subject is standing directly adjacent to a doorway or inside it. If the height of the doorways is indeed
84” (2134mm) or above, with a standard hardware installation of approximately 950-1000mm, then I have calculated the following heights for the subject in the videos:
Based on a 84" Door Installation minimum (87”-88" total height incl. frame)
Image 1: 73.2” - 74.2” (6’1”- 6’2" with shoes and helmet - subtract 2-3”, you get 5’10” - 6’0" actual height)
Image 2: (see below)
Image 3: 71.2” - 72.2” (5’11” - 6’0” with shoes and helmet - subtract 2-3”, you get 5’8” - 5’11” actual height)
Image 4: 71.2” - 72.2” (5’11” - 6’0” with shoes and helmet - subtract 2-3”, you get 5’8” - 5’11” actual height)
Image 5: 71.2” - 72.2” (5’11” - 6’0” with shoes and helmet - subtract 2-3”, you get 5’8” - 5’11” actual height)
Based on an estimated alcove height of 90”
Image 2: 72.8” (6’0” with shoes and helmet - subtract 2-3”, you get 5’9” - 5’10" actual height) in image 5, I believe the alcove height is
at least 2-3 inches higher than the interior doorways.
At no point did I ever find the height of the subject to be under 5’8”, and I consistently attained 5’8” or taller using a 84" door estimate. Any door installation or frame extending over 84” would make the subject even
taller.
Again, based on my own observations and calculations, I am a little skeptical of law enforcement's released height estimates regarding the subject in the video analysis. I believe my own estimates err on the conservative side, based on commercial installation standard minimums. By my calculations, LE estimates of 5’2”-5’6” would put the door installation heights at the Midlothian Church below 80” (6’6”-6’8” meaning a 6'2" opening - ??) in height, which is
unusually short for this type of installation.