Magpul CTR stock is made of a hard polymer. I’ve never seen a broken one but I envision a really hard impact would shatter a section. This broken stock is exactly what my mind would envision if one were shot with a rifle. In the absence of any other explanation of how it became broken in those moments, a gunshot is the a consistent and not inconsistent explanation.
Looking at the best images from the rooftop rifle, I can make out the color variance and the chunk missing where it was broken.
It’s speculation at best on how Crooks was exactly holding the rifle when shot, and the angle the bullet came from. One pure speculation, if he had the rifle in a prone aiming position with his cheek on the rear of the stock, similar but maybe more exaggerated than we see in pictures, and a bullet came from his 1 or 2 o’clock, said bullet could obliterate the stock and enter his mouth and exit the back of his neck.
But there’s a bunch of possibilities of the rifle being in different positions (not against his shoulder) and bullet might have come from different direction than frontal… or the shot from the south but he’s turned at an 90 degree angle. Here’s him turning right before he was shot. Bullet from the south might have missed him but clipped the rear top of the stock.
