HotShot Murders?: The use, navigation, and consequences of forced drug injections as a method of homicide

• In Event: New Contexts, New Risk Factors: Examining Risks for Victimization

Abstract

Street-involved people who use drugs must navigate daily threats to their
safety. While many of these threats are well understood, such as
violence, hate crime, and theft, one common concern— “hot shotting”—
has received little empirical attention. Hot shotting refers to the
deliberate injection of lethal drug concoctions (usually high-dose opioids)
with the intent to kill. Drawing upon interviews with 317 street-involved
persons, most of whom used drugs and were unhoused at the time of the
research, we examine their accounts of hot shot victimization,
illuminating the techniques, motivations, and consequences of these
largely undetected homicides. Hot shots carry multiple consequences for
marginalized people's safety and wellbeing, constituting a new type and
layer of fentanyl-driven threat on the streets. Furthermore, participants
believed that police investigations into these killings were limited,
exacerbating fear and frustrations. We argue that hot shot killings
necessitate greater police, paramedic, coroner, policy and legal attention.

Authors

• Carolyn Greene, Wilfrid Laurier University

• Katharina Maier, University of Winnipeg

• Marta-Marika Urbanik, University of Alberta

• Nader Chehayeb, University of Alberta