Robbery suspect loses testicle in accidental shooting
Posted: Jan 15, 2008 12:16 PM EST
Updated: Jan 15, 2008 05:57 PM EST
Chris Proffitt/Eyewitness News
Kokomo - It was one embarrassingly wrong move for an alleged armed robber that cost him dearly. It happened early Tuesday morning at a Kokomo convenience store when police say a 25-year-old man accidentally shot himself during a holdup.
Given the chance, Derrick Kosch would probably start the day over. It began with a bad decision and only got worse.
"My understanding is that his right testicle had to be removed," said Major Don Whitehead of the Kokomo Police Department.
That's what happens when you shoot yourself in the groin. Police say that's just what Kosch did during an armed robbery of a Kokomo, Indiana convenience store.
Surveillance tape from the store shows an armed man with a cloth sack entering the store. After yanking the female clerk by the hair, he demands money.
"It appears on the video, that when he returned the handgun back to the front waistband of his pants, that it discharged," said Major Whitehead.
The bullet pierced his right testicle, then tore into his left calf. Telling the clerk he shot himself, police say Kosch took the money and ran. A short time later, police were called by a relative of the suspect, saying that Kosch had been shot.
When police arrived at the wounded suspect's grandmother's home, they found him and allegedly recovered a white, cloth bag containing the store's money.
Kosch's grandmother, who doesn't want to be identified, is disappointed.
"I have grandchildren, but I've made it possible for them to have all kinds of things, not by taking something that belongs to somebody else," said the grandmother.
Taken from surgery into custody and off to jail with his face hidden, Derrick Kosch is charged with armed robbery and criminal recklessness that cost him dearly. The painful lesson that crime doesn't pay that will last a lifetime.
Kosch denies robbing the store and told police that someone shot him. Today, detectives were searching for the weapon used in the robbery.
