Convict admits to shooting at victim’s home

Douglas Kohen pleaded guilty to several charges, including attempted criminal homicide and indecent assault

WEST CHESTER >> A 64-yearold East Caln man is awaiting sentencing on attempted murder and child sexual abuse charges after pleading guilty in Common Pleas Court that he fired a gun into the home of the child he had molested.

On Friday, Douglas Leonard Kohen entered pleas to a series of charges stemming from the initial abuse and later attempt at intimidation of the then-7year-old girl and her family. He will be sentenced by Senior Judge Thomas Gavin in June.

Kohen pleaded guilty to charges of attempted criminal homicide, discharging a firearm into an occupied structure, recklessly endangering another person, indecent assault of a person less than 13, corruption of minors, indecent exposure, and firearms charges. He will also have to undergo a review by the state’s Sexual Offender’s Assessment Board to determine if he should be classified as a Sexually Violent Predator under the state’s Megan’s Law.

Kohen had been arrested and charged with molesting the young girl sometime around Christmas 2015, when he was visiting her in her home in East Caln. The girl had told members of the Chester County District Attorney’s Child Abuse Unit that Kohen had touched her inappropriately and made her touch him while he was exposed.

He was free on bail pending those charges when the shooting occurred.

According to Downingtown police Detective Paul Trautmann, Kohen shot six times in the early morning hours of March 6 into the home of the child victim from the abuse case. In addition to the abused victim, the girl’s 9-yearold sibling and her father were home at the time of the shooting. There were no injuries.

Trautmann, investigating the shooting, said the girl’s father said that he had heard someone yelling outside his home around 3 a.m. and looked out his window to see Kohen outside, reaching into his car, who then pulled out a gun, walked towards the home, and began firing. The father, whose name is being withheld to protect the identity of the child abuse victim, grabbed both children and dropped to the floor. Several bullets went through the window of the home and through the opposite wall.

The three crawled on the floor to a back bedroom to call 9-1-1.

Police said Kohen then fled in his car, a Toyota Corolla. Downingtown police sent out a warning message to other police departments, and Kohen was taken into custody by West Goshen police after an alleged drunk driving crash shortly afterwards.

Inside Kohen’s Toyota, police found a .357 revolver and six spent shells, plus other ammunition. When he was handcuffed, Kohen admitted to officers that he had just come from firing shots into a home, and that he intended to kill the father of the children who lived there.

The shooting occurred three days before Kohen’s scheduled preliminary hearing on the abuse charges.

Assistant District Attorney John Rafferty is handling the case for the DA’s Child Abuse Unit. Kohen is represented by Assistant Public Defender James McMullen.

To contact staff writer Michael P. Rellahan call 610-696-1544.