But he's sitting so close that it'd be awkward to look!

I'd like to say the murderer was skilled, but it was a close proximity shot.

A spray of gas at point-blank range-eth...

Exposure to this pressure ray at close range

But they can't do that, right?

And second, it gives some thirty people the opportunity to kill him from extremely close range.

Which means it got a direct hit at point-blank range from whatever was in that weird spray.

He was also shot point-blank

If you fire point-blank, the bullet will penetrate the head,