A retired Chicago woman gunned down her grandson's mother in an upscale New York City neighborhood just steps from the mayor's home as part of a deadly custody dispute over a 4-year-old girl, city police said Friday. Then she killed herself as a 1-year-old sat in a carseat steps away.
The NYPD said Friday morning that Marisa Galloway, 46, had been shot in the head and the back on a Manhattan street by Kathleen Leigh, the 66-year-old grandmother of Galloway’s 4-year-old child.
"What we have on video, Ms. Galloway puts the child in the backseat of the car. She is 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 when she's on the ground, shoots her in the back," NYPD Chief Joseph Kenny told reporters.
The victim of a shocking murder-suicide in New York City’s Upper East Side has been identified as a schoolteacher and former track and field coach at nearby Fordham University, where she had graduated in 2001.
Police found two pistols at the scene — which played out less than a block from Gracie Mansion, where Mayor Eric Adams lives. Leigh dropped one of them after pulling the trigger on herself, and police recovered the other from a tote bag.
They also found Galloway's other child, a 1-year-old, alive in the back of a car nearby. She is not related to Leigh.
Galloway had just placed the child in a child seat when surveillance video shows Leigh approach and open fire, according to authorities. Then Leigh shot herself.
Galloway and her killer had a history of domestic disputes believed to have stemmed from custody arrangements regarding the 4-year-old, police said during a morning news briefing.
She had filed five reports and two complaints with the NYPD, none of which resulted in an arrest.
Leigh's son, Kenny Leigh, is the 4-year-old's father.
The killer was a retired probation officer from Chicago, who lived on North Park Avenue in the Windy City until relocating to the Big Apple three years ago, police said.
Responding officers found both women with gunshot wounds to the head.
Paramedics rushed Galloway to the hospital, where she succumbed to her injuries.
Galloway was a former college athlete who returned to her alma mater as a volunteer.
"The Fordham University community is deeply saddened by the tragic death of Marisa Galloway, a Fordham alumna who served as a volunteer assistant track and field coach at Fordham for 17 years until 2019," a school spokesperson told Fox News Digital.
Galloway earned a bachelor of arts degree from Fordham College at Rose Hill in 2001 and a master's degree in science from the Fordham Graduate School of Education four years later, the school said.
"While at Fordham, she was a high jumper for the Rams and also participated in sprints and relay teams over her career. She capped her senior season in 2001 by placing third in the high jump at the Metropolitan Championships," the statement continued. "We keep Marissa and her loved ones in our thoughts and prayers."