Kathleen Leigh ex Chicago probation officer shoots former daughter in law, Marisa Galloway NYC woman dead then self in UES street murder suicide over child custody case.
A retired Chicago probation officer shot dead her former daughter-in-law and then herself along an Upper East Side street Friday morning, as the woman’s 4 year old grandson sat in the backseat of a car his mother had moments ago had placed him in, the NYPD said.
The murder-suicide is alleged to have arisen as a result of an acrimonious child custody dispute between the shooter, Kathleen Leigh, 65, and victim Marisa Galloway, 45, and the woman’s former husband, NYPD Chief of Detectives Joe Kenny told reporters.
Leigh’s son had previously been married to Galloway and the former couple were embroiled in an ongoing child custody case involving the couple’s 4 year old son, ABC7NY reported.
Ongoing grievance
The ongoing feud culminated just before 9 a.m. on East 88th Street between York and East End Avenue, just down the street from the entrance of Gracie Mansion.
Galloway had just placed her 4-year-old son in the car and was putting a stroller in the trunk when the grandmother of the boy approached.
Leigh then shot Galloway twice before then proceeding to then shoot herself, falling onto a sidewalk and dropping a loaded gun between her and Galloway, the cop told the nypost.
‘Both had suffered gunshot wounds to the head,’ Kenny told the tabloid.
Leigh, a retired Cook County probation officer, moved to NYC from Chicago three years ago according to Kenny.
She is the grandmother of Galloway’s 4-year-old son, Kenny told the nypost.
5 previous domestic incident reports
The boy was at the center of a bitter child custody dispute between Galloway, Leigh and Leigh’s son according to Kenny.
Five domestic incident reports were taken by NYPD cops in the dispute, in addition to two complaints, but no incident had led to an arrest, Kenny said.
The feud appeared to have boiled over Friday morning, as Galloway put the 4 year old boy into a car.
‘She’s then in the process of putting the stroller in the trunk where she is approached by Ms. Leigh who shoots her in the head and then when she’s on the ground shoots her in the back,’ Kenny said, describing surveillance footage.
Three gunshots were heard along the otherwise quiet, tree-lined block, a stone’s throw from the official residence of New York City’s mayor.
‘I heard yelling, and then I heard shots. I jumped into my doorway for cover,’ a witness told the nypost as sirens blared around him.
‘And then I looked and I saw the lady with the white hair fall onto the sidewalk. I thought something might have happened down by Gracie Mansion and she was hit by a stray bullet,’ he continued.
‘But then when I went closer, I saw there was another woman lying behind the car who was also shot.’
2 guns recovered at crime scene
Galloway was found bloodied but still breathing, slumped near the car’s rear, witnesses and police said. Leigh lay on a sidewalk, a self-inflicted gunshot wound in her head, Kenny said.
Medics pronounced Leigh dead at the scene, with Galloway rushed to Weill Cornell Medical Center, where doctors declared her dead on arrival, Kenny said.
Galloway was an experienced runner and longtime track coach at Fordham University. She was a Fordham alumna who served as a volunteer assistant track and field coach at Fordham for 17 years until 2019. Galloway also worked as a teacher in Westchester, ABC7NY reported.
Two guns were found near Leigh: a loaded 9-millimeter Glock pistol on the sidewalk near her, and another firearm inside a tote bag she was carrying, Kenny said.
Kenny said cops will investigate whether those are retirement weapons from Leigh’s time as a probation officer.
‘Those firearms have no significant history here in New York City,’ he said. ‘They’re not reported as stolen. That’ll be part of our investigation.’
In addition to her son, Galloway had a 1-year-old daughter, who is unrelated to the suspect. She was not at the scene.
