MONACA, Pa. — A man who shot and killed his estranged wife and then himself had lured her outside her job at a Penn State satellite campus by saying he had Christmas presents for their children, authorities said.
State police Lt. Eric Hermick said Lesli Kelly, 49, was on a break during her Wednesday shift at the campus cafeteria, sitting in her SUV waiting for the man she had just divorced to arrive.
Her ex-husband, William Kelly, 52, pulled up in his SUV shortly thereafter and approached her carrying wrapped presents, Hermick said.
Witnesses told police the two had a brief conversation, then William Kelly pulled out a handgun and fired multiple rounds.
Once Lesli Kelly fell to the ground, William Kelly turned the gun on himself, police said.
“We’re getting indications that there was domestic issues, child support issues, and we’re also getting information that he was harassing her,” Hermick said.
Lesli Kelly had not filed a protection from abuse order against her ex-husband, but she had filed multiple harassment complaints about him with campus police, Hermick said.
Two students and a custodian witnessed the shooting, police said.
Police determined the couple had one adult child and shared custody of two younger children, who are staying with family members.
There were fewer students on campus at the time because many were leaving for winter break, school officials said.
Edisa Bukuru, 20, an accounting major, told the Tribune-Review she was inside the Brodhead Bistro when a fellow student got an alert on a cellphone: “Stay inside. Somebody just got shot.”
Then a girl burst through the door and alerted everyone to the shooting.
“Until the girl came in running, nobody took it serious,” she said, adding that she knew Lesli Kelly from the cafeteria. “She was really nice.”