Marc Cohn felt the blood on his hands and saw it on his clothes and thought every second that passed would be his last on Earth.
The Grammy Award-winning musician realized he had been shot in the head and could tell by the looks on the faces of his friends that he might die.
The “Walking in Memphis” singer was wounded during an attempted carjacking Aug. 8 in downtown Denver. Cohn had just finished a performance at the Denver Botanic Gardens when the incident occurred.
Cohn’s account of the shooting will air tonight on ABC’s “20/20,” the network news show that his wife, Elizabeth Vargas, co-anchors.
“‘Please don’t let me die; I have children,”‘ Cohn recalled thinking. “‘I have a wife.’ … And it was terror, disbelief and just a prayer. ‘Just please don’t let this be it.”‘
The bullet lodged in Cohn’s temple but was removed by doctors at Denver Health Medical Center.
Tom Dube, Cohn’s tour manager, was grazed in the chin by the same bullet.
The Denver District Attorney’s Office has filed 19 criminal charges, including attempted murder, against 26-year-old Joseph Yacteen. He was already wanted by police when he was caught using a stolen credit card, authorities said.
Yacteen ran through the 16th Street Mall area flashing a gun at officers and attempting to carjack several vehicles as authorities chased him, police said.
Yacteen is accused of firing the gunshot into the van that Cohn was riding in with Dube and bandmate Shane Fontaine.
Yacteen, who was caught at the end of a five-hour standoff after he had run into a vacant house, remains in jail on $1 million bail.
Staff writer Felisa Cardona can be reached at 303-820-1219 or fcardona@denverpost.com.
