A child custody exchange on Dubois Street in Val Verde turned violent Wednesday evening when an argument between two men escalated into gunfire, leaving one man wounded and the other behind bars on $1 million bail. Patrick Koshak, 36, was arrested on suspicion of attempted murder, and the man he allegedly shot is expected to face his own arrest once he's released from the hospital.
Deputies responded to a call reporting an assault with a deadly weapon in the 28000 block of Dubois Street near Chiquito Canyon Road at about 8 p.m. Wednesday, according to a preliminary investigation cited by NBC Los Angeles. Responding deputies found a man suffering from gunshot wounds to the stomach and buttocks, the outlet reported, and he was taken to a hospital where he is expected to survive. hometownstation.com identified the man arrested in the shooting as Koshak, who remains in custody with bail set at $1 million.
According to NBC Los Angeles, the two men had argued during a physical custody transfer of a child before one of them threatened the other with a shovel, prompting the other man to respond by firing a gun. Deputies later recovered a firearm at the scene. Separately, hometownstation.com reported that the two men were known to each other and that their verbal argument escalated before one charged at the other with a sharp gardening tool, leading the other man to discharge a firearm — while signalscv.com reported that the gunshot victim was the one who began chasing the other man, in that account with an ax. The accounts do not agree on exactly which tool was involved or who wielded it, and that detail remains unresolved.
Conflicting Accounts of How the Victim Reached the Hospital
Reports also diverge on how the wounded man got medical care. Per NBC Los Angeles and hometownstation.com, the shooting victim was taken to a hospital for treatment of his wounds. Signalscv.com's report instead states that the victim survived the gunshots and drove himself to Henry Mayo Newhall Hospital. Hoodline is presenting both versions because neither source confirms the other's account.
Authorities say the man who was shot is expected to be arrested on suspicion of assault with a deadly weapon once he is released from the hospital, a detail confirmed by both hometownstation.com and signalscv.com. A sheriff's sergeant identified in the signalscv.com report as Sgt. Mark Perkins said he could not confirm whether the argument that preceded the shooting was over the child being exchanged or about something else entirely.
Part of a Troubling Pattern at Custody Handoffs
The Val Verde shooting follows other recent incidents in which child custody exchanges turned violent. In June, a man was fatally shot during a custody exchange at a Home Depot parking lot in Covina, where police said a verbal fight escalated before one man produced a firearm and shot the other, according to the Los Angeles Times. And last month in Clay County, Florida, a man opened fire with an AR-style rifle during a custody exchange, sending bullets into a vehicle and several nearby homes, news4jax.com reported. No one was struck by gunfire in that Florida case, though homes and a vehicle were damaged.
In Val Verde, the full picture of what led to Wednesday's shooting — including whose version of the confrontation is accurate and what role, if any, the child exchange played in sparking it — remains unclear as the investigation continues.
