Elba Woman Found Incompetent in Winona County Shooting Case

Elba, MN (KROC-AM News) - A Winona County judge today ruled that an Elba woman is incompetent to face charges stemming from a shooting in August that seriously wounded another woman in the small Winona County community.

Sixty-five-year-old Ava Leone Kock was charged with second-degree attempted murder and two counts of second-degree assault with a dangerous weapon following her arrest. Court documents indicate the 34-year-old shooting victim was hospitalized with bullet fragments in her eye and brain that were causing a brain bleed.

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According to the criminal complaint against Kock, Winona County deputies responded to a residence in Elba on the night of August 12 on a report of a disturbance involving a firearm. A man reported that his wife had been shot at multiple times while she was sitting in her vehicle in the driveway of their home.

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Victim Hospitalized with Bullet Fragments in Brain and Eye

When deputies arrived, the 34-year-old woman was in an ambulance being prepared for transport to St. Marys Hospital. Her husband told the deputies that he had been inside their home playing video games when his wife called and asked him to come outside.

The court document says he found her “hunkered down” behind the dashboard in her vehicle, visibly upset, and asking him to ride with her to the hospital. The husband told investigators that he noticed several bullet holes in the driver’s side door and the windshield.

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Investigators Trace Bullets to Apartment Window

The criminal complaint says investigators eventually located seven bullet holes concentrated in the area of the driver’s seat and door. A deputy was able to shine a flashlight through the bullet holes to determine a possible bullet trajectory and found that it pointed toward an apartment building just north of the crime scene.

According to the court document, the deputy then noticed that the window screens of an apartment had seven holes that appeared to be roughly the same size as the bullet holes in the vehicle. That led deputies to speak with Kock, who was the occupant of the apartment. The criminal complaint says she told deputies that she had heard something but stayed inside her apartment. She also claimed that the holes in the window screens had been there when she moved in and was described as being “very cooperative” with the investigation.

Suspect Confesses to Shooting, Citing Biblical Reference

The following day, the criminal complaint states that Kock confessed to the shooting. She told investigators that she had used her son’s .22-caliber rifle and fired seven shots at the victim’s vehicle because “seven is referenced in the Bible several times.” A search warrant executed at her apartment led to the recovery of the rifle and spent shell casings.

Kock criminal complaint-Winona County

With the determination that Kock is incompetent to face prosecution, the criminal proceedings against her have been put on hold. The court has scheduled a review hearing in the case for January.

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