Assassination of John F. Kennedy President Kennedy as his motorcade continued down Elm Street. About 80% of the witnesses recalled hearing three shots. A minority of the witnesses recognized the first gunshot they heard as weapon fire, but there was hardly any reaction to the first shot from a majority of the people in the crowd or those riding in the motorcade. Many bystanders later said that they heard what they first thought to either be a firecracker or the backfire of one of the vehicles shortly after the President had begun waving. Although some close witnesses recalled seeing the limousine slow down, nearly stop,
Assassination of John F. Kennedy rifle was consistent with the fibers and colors of the shirt Oswald was wearing at the time of his arrest. A bullet found on Governor Connally's hospital gurney and two bullet fragments found in the Presidential limousine were ballistically matched to this rifle. The staff at Parkland Hospital's Trauma Room 1 who treated President Kennedy observed that his condition was moribund, meaning that he had no chance of survival upon arriving at the hospital. George Burkley, the President's personal physician, stated that a gunshot wound to the skull was the cause of death. Burkley signed President Kennedy's death certificate. The