Man charged with murder for shooting woman who drove down wrong driveway
A woman in upstate New York was killed by a homeowner after she accidentally drove into the wrong driveway.
Paramedics rushed to the scene of a shooting on Saturday, April 15 in the small town of Salem, New York. While they were searching for the victim, they also received reports fired from the nearby town of Hebron.
They soon realized the two calls were connected. The victim, who was identified as 20-year-old Kaylin Gillis of Schuylerville, New York, was suffering from a single gunshot wound.
Gillis was with a group of four people searching for a friend’s house in Hebron on Saturday night.
‘They had gone to the scene in error, they were looking for a friend’s house,’ Washington County Sheriff Jeffrey J Murphy said. ‘Unfortunately, they drove up this driveway. It’s a very rural area, there’s dirt roads, there’s not a lot of cell service or any type of internet.’
When the group approached the house, the homeowner came outside and immediately fired two shots into at the oncoming car, one of which struck Gillis.
According to the sheriff, Gillis and the others in the car did not interact with the shooter at all.
The driver of the car quickly fled the scene, and drove towards the nearby town of Salem, where they could receive cell service and call 911.
The shooter was identified as the homeowner, 65-year-old Kevin D Monahan, who the sheriff said lived at the residence for a long time.
Sheriff Murphy described Monahan as ‘not cooperative,’ and he refused to leave his house to speak with deputies.
‘He would not come outside and talk to patrols,’ the sheriff said.
After refusing to come out of his home for over an hour, Monahan was taken into custody. He was charged with second-degree murder, and is being held at Warren County Jail.
Meanwhile, a GoFundMe campaign was started to support Gillis’s family. The campaign has raised over $50,000 as of Tuesday morning.
‘I know for a fact that she comes from a good family. A very good family that I know personally,’ Sheriff Murphy said.
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