No charges were brought against a woman who accidentally shot and killed her boyfriend in their Canyon Country apartment, investigators said on Wednesday.
The case was declined by the Los Angeles County District Attorney’s Office after investigators expressed their belief that the shooting on Feb. 15, 2020, was not malicious and the then-63-year-old woman mistook her 67-year-old boyfriend, David Koos, as someone breaking into their shared home on the 26300 block of Rainbow Glen Drive.
“Basically, they were live-in boyfriend/girlfriend and she heard noises in the night,” said Lt. Brandon Dean of the Los Angeles County Sheriff’s Department Homicide Bureau. “She thought she saw somebody moving and she retrieved her firearm, fired and ultimately it was our victim.”
According to Dean, Koos was fatally shot one time in his upper torso. No other injuries to any other persons in the area were reported at the time of the incident.
Deputies were quickly notified of the shooting on the 26300 block of Rainbow Glen Drive, and paramedics were notified shortly before 6 p.m. that they were needed at the scene for a possible gunshot victim.
However, Koos was pronounced dead on the scene and investigators with the coroner’s office were dispatched to the home.
In the days following the shooting, homicide detectives conducted interviews and collected evidence from the scene. The woman believed to be the 63-year-old woman who fired the gun was seen outside the residence crying but cooperating with deputies, who were conducting a gunshot residue test.
“The investigation is basically completed,” said Dean. “Ultimately it looks like it was probably an accidental shooting.”
The case was formally rejected by the Los Angeles County District Attorney’s Office on Dec. 18.
