A 65-year-old retired probation officer from Chicago fatally shot her grandson’s mother on an Upper East Side street Friday just yards from Gracie Mansion, then turned the gun on herself, NYPD detectives said.
Kathleen Leigh shot Marisa Galloway, 45, on E. 88th St. near York Avenue at about 8:50 a.m., then killed herself in an apparent murder-suicide, NYPD Chief of Detectives Joseph Kenny said.
“This is going to be an ongoing custody dispute between Miss Galloway, her 4-year-old son, and the shooter,” Kenny said.
Galloway’s 1-year-old daughter, who is not the child at the heart of the custody battle, was found strapped into a car seat in the back of Galloway’s Honda, physically unharmed, Kenny said.
Gracie Mansion, home to Mayor Eric Adams, is less than a block away on East End Avenue.
The shooting brought NYPD officers who were part of the Mayor’s protective detail and were stationed near Gracie Mansion.
Adams also showed up at the scene within minutes, a police source with knowledge of the case said.
City Hall referred all inquiries about the shooting to the NYPD.
The shooting took place two and a half blocks from Galloway’s apartment building, where news of her death stunned tenants.
One woman was so distraught after hearing what happened, she hunkered down onto a tree pit guard with her head clutched in her hands.
“They shot Marisa!” she screamed at a guard inside her building. “Who’s looking after the kids?”
At least three shots were fired, cops said.
Video recovered from the scene shows Galloway putting her daughter in the back seat moments before she was shot in the head, Kenny said.
“She’s putting the stroller in the trunk when she’s approached by Miss Leigh, who shoots her in the head,” Kenny said. “When [(Galloway is) on the ground she shoots her in the back.”
Police recovered two firearms at the scene. One was found on the sidewalk and a second pistol was found in Leigh’s tote bag.
Neither gun is reported stolen. Cops are trying to determine if the weapons were used by Leigh when she was a probation officer for Cook County in Illinois.
While Leigh’s last known address is Chicago, police believe she has been living in New York City with relatives for the last three years.
Michael Donovan, a superintendent of an East 88th Street building, was cleaning up outside when he heard the gunshots.
“I ducked into my doorway for cover and then I looked and I saw the lady with the white hair fall onto the sidewalk,” Donovan said. “When I went closer I saw there was another woman lying behind the car who was also shot.”
A second later, he peered into the car’s back seat.
“There was a … child in the car,” he said. “I called 911, the police responded immediately, and EMS. The gun is still there on the scene.”
Leigh died at the scene, cops said. Galloway was taken to an area hospital but did not survive.
“The trunk was open, the doors were open,” Donovan said. “It looked like they were packing stuff up or taking stuff out.”
Police had been called to Galloway’s home four times between 2021 and 2022. All of the incidents involved arguments between Galloway, her son’s father, and Leigh over visitation rights and other custody matters, Kenny said.
In one incident, Galloway is accused of abusing her son, but the claims were not substantiated, officials said. Leigh and her son filed two criminal complaints against Galloway for abusing her son, but no arrests were ever made, Kenny said.
The shooting happened “right down the block from Gracie Mansion,” Donovan said.
“It’s shocking because it’s a safe and quiet block,” he said.
Other area residents said the double shooting shattered the security they felt in this bucolic Manhattan carveout.
“Generally I feel safe here. Until today,” longtime area resident Denise Sweeney said.
Sweeney said she was “a little surprised,” when she heard about the killing.
“There’s always a lot of cops there,” she said, noting Gracie Mansion in the distance.
Crime, in general, is beginning to creep up on the Upper West Side, she said.
“There was a lot of crime in the ’60s and ’70s,” the life-long New Yorker explained. “Hopefully it gets better, cause it’s a cycle.”
___
© 2024 New York Daily News
Distributed by Tribune Content Agency, LLC.
