WINONA, Minn. — A mental evaluation has been ordered for an Elba woman who admitted firing a rifle several times into a vehicle driven by a neighbor. The confession is cited in the criminal complaint against Ava Leone Kock, age 64. So too are a series of bizarre explanations to sheriff’s investigators:

> The targeted woman and her husband had been “murdering and raping people,” Kock is quoted as saying

> She said she had heard the couple digging graves in the basement of their apartment and burying “people and kids.”

> Koch said that nobody else was stopping the “criminal behavior” so she had to do it.

> Both the husband and wife, she believed, were in the Jeep when she pulled the trigger. Actually, the husband was in their apartment and she was coming home and parking their Jeep outside.

> As she fired into the Jeep, she spoke to God: “Guide my bullets like You guided David’s rock.”

> Why seven rounds? Because the Bible has numerous references to seven.

> She felt at peace, and she was unbothered that anyone was injured.

Investigators also reported in the criminal complaint that Kock had an odd reputation in the neighborhood.  A nearby business owner said that Kock had mentioned a month earlier that the couple was “very loud” and she thought the husband was assaulting his wife. Kock was quoted also that she and her son were going to figure out a way to “take out” the husband.

Rifle among seized evidence

When officers entered Kock’s place with search warrant the morning after the shooting, they said, Kock pointed them to a rifle hidden behind a stove. Spent shell casings were in a potted plant in her living room, they said.  Confiscated were a gun case, a Ruger .22 caliber rifle, a box of .22 caliber rounds, and seven .22 rifle cartridges.

Clarification

There were clarifications in the criminal complaint: Initial reports were that the shots were fired from a front door. The shots actually were fired from a bathroom window, according to the complaint. Investigators have requested a forensic reconstruction of the scene by an outside agency.

Earlier: Elba shooting update: Bullet entered victim’s brain