According to New York City police, a terminally sick mother shot her former daughter-in-law and herself in broad sight.
The 4-year-old child that the victim, 45-year-old Marisa Galloway, shared with the suspect, 65-year-old Kathleen Leigh, was the source of the violence.
Police claim that Galloway, a former track coach at Fordham University, an enthusiastic runner, and a special education teacher, was caught on camera placing her younger child, a 1-year-old daughter, in the backseat of a white Honda Civic on Friday morning. This occurred on East 88th Street in the Upper East Side community, just a short distance from the mayor’s residence, Gracie Mansion.
Leigh, a former probation officer who had been residing with local relatives while battling terminal cancer, allegedly approached Galloway as she was pushing a stroller in the back and shot her in the head.
According to authorities, who showed security footage, Leigh then shot Galloway in the lower back while she was on the ground. She then took her own life. The one-year-old suffered no physical injuries.
The New York Post said that sources claimed Leigh had a letter marked “For Police” in her panties, however it was unclear what was written in it.
Joseph Kenny, the Chief of Detectives for the New York Police Department, stated in a press conference on Friday that police had previously accepted five reports of domestic incidents and two reports of complaints, but none of them resulted in an arrest.
Galloway was the target of the accusations, but it was purported that the two complaint reports were proven to be untrue.
“She always talked about the fact that she had a former husband that was harassing the hell out of her because I had child services at my door one evening asking if I had ever heard any problems next door,” one of her neighbors, Meryl Feidelman stated.
“She took away the child’s mother in order to make her son happy … it’s shocking,” a law-enforcement source stated. “I’ve seen a lot of s–t but this is biblical s–t.”
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Everybody she encountered was impacted by Maria Galloway. Her generosity, kindness, and love were unmatched, according to a GoFundMe page that praised her for being a loving mother to her two kids.
“Marisa’s untimely passing will leave a void in all of our lives. But her memory will live on in her daughters and in all of our hearts.”
