Des Moines police have still not been able to interview the victim of a weekend shooting near Drake Park, a department spokesman said this afternoon.
Two witnesses told police they found Pius Koskei, 36, bleeding from the head early Saturday while sitting in the driver’s side of a white Hyundai Santa Fe. Koskei’s vehicle was found on 21st Street north of Drake Park, according to a police report. Koskei was conscious but unable to speak.
Sgt. Jeff Edwards said today investigators haven’t had any breaks in the case and they hope to interview Koskei soon.
“It’s a pretty significant injury,” Edwards said. “At least as of this morning when I checked, they had not been able to interview him. That will be done as soon as he is able to. Detectives are still conducting interviews to determine why and how things happened.”
Late Sunday night, a spokesman at Mercy Medical Center in Des Moines confirmed Koskei was in critical condition.
Neighbors near the park reported several shots fired the night of Koskei’s shooting. But several declined to comment Sunday, saying they were fearful of retaliation.
Emergency dispatchers first received reports of shots fired at 2:23 a.m. A bullet appears to have pierced the driver’s side of the vehicle’s windshield, the police report said. The vehicle was still in drive and running when police arrived.
There are no immediate plans to change security plans in the area, Edwards said.
“Until we find out what the circumstances were here, I think it would be premature to make that assumption,” he said. “We have a lot of patrol officers who are paying particular attention to the parks and that’s been going on since summer. Right now, I have not heard of any plans to add more people there.”
Edwards said it was too soon to know whether the Drake Park shooting was related to shots that were fired elsewhere that night near 7th and Allison.
“I would hesitate to make any kind of connection between the two” incidents, he said. “At least right now, I don’t think (detectives) are looking at that as a link. Until they have a chance to do further investigation, it’s way too early to make that determination.”
A witness involved in a separate shooting incident later Saturday said youths had clashed during a party in the area the night Koskei was shot, according to a police report. The witness said a group that calls itself “The 21st Street Boys” is known to hang out near 21st Street and Forest Avenue.
The witness said a youth fired at him later Saturday with what appeared to be a revolver. The witness had yelled at a group of teens after discovering a brick had been thrown at his windshield. A casing and other evidence were recovered near that scene.