Retired probation officer fatally shoots former daughter-in-law, then herself on posh UES street
A terminally ill retiree shot dead her former daughter-in-law and then herself on a quiet Upper East Side street Friday — the tragic capstone to a bitter custody dispute over her toddler granddaughter.
The shocking murder-suicide unfolded along East 88th Street, down the block from Gracie Mansion, just before 9 a.m., when ex-Chicago probation officer Kathleen Leigh, 65, twice shot 45-year-old mom of two Marisa Galloway, police said.
Galloway, a special education teacher, had just loaded her 1-year-old daughter into the backseat of a parked white Honda Civic when Leigh blasted her in the head and back before turning the gun on herself, cops said.
“She took away the child’s mother in order to make her son happy … it’s shocking,” a law-enforcement source said. “I’ve seen a lot of s–t but this is biblical s–t.”
Galloway — a former volunteer coach at Fordham University and a board member of the Central Park Track Club — was described by friends and neighbors as a “devoted” mom who often toted her two daughters along in a stroller on runs.
Here is the latest on Kathleen Leigh, the woman who shot and killed her ex-daughter-in-law on the Upper East Side:
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- Retired probation officer had mysterious note in her pocket when she killed ex-daughter-in-law, herself on posh UES street: sources
- Retired probation officer fatally shoots former daughter-in-law, then herself on posh UES street
Her other daughter, 4, was at the center of a bitter custody battle between Galloway and Leigh’s son that appears to have led to the murder-suicide, police said.
“She was so wonderful and she loved her kids,” one resident in Galloway’s East 86th Street apartment building, who was so angry she was fuming with tears in her eyes, said about the slain mom.
“What could she have possibly done for you to hate her so much to kill her?” she said, shaking her head.
The bad blood could be traced in a long trail of domestic incidents, as well as flabbergasted neighbors who told The Post that both Galloway and Leigh complained about the fractious feud.
Sources said that Leigh had terminal cancer and had been living with Galloway’s ex at a doorman building on East 79th Street while she received treatment, likely at Mt. Sinai.
Neighbors were aware of the turmoil between Galloway and her ex.
“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,” said Galloway’s neighbor Meryl Feidelman.
“I said, ‘No, no she’s a lovely, lovely mother, a lovely woman.’”
The troubles apparently escalated in July 2021, when authorities filed two domestic incident reports in as many days after Galloway and her ex got into arguments, including one in a doctor’s office, law-enforcement sources said.
Cops took five domestic incidents reports total involving the pair between July 2021 and November, the sources said. The father complained in several reports that his daughter came home with bruises, according to the sources.
Two led to Administration for Children’s Services complaints, where investigators found the accusations were unfounded, sources said.
Leigh, however, apparently believed Galloway was abusive.
A resident in the building where Leigh stayed with her son told The Post that she ran into the shooter Thursday — dressed in a hot pink dress and showing no sign of her cancer diagnosis.
“She used to say things to me like the mother is abusing the child,” the neighbor said, “which I don’t think there was any evidence of that.”
“But I know she did not like the ex-daughter-in-law.”
Sources said an agreement gave the father custody Friday through Monday, while Galloway had their daughter the rest of the week.
A custody switch-off appeared to be in the offing Friday morning, as Galloway put her other child — the 1-year-old girl — into the car.
She was loading a stroller into the trunk when her former mother-in-law shot her in the head.
“And then, when she’s on the ground, [Leigh] shoots her in the back,” NYPD Chief of Detectives Joseph Kenny said, describing surveillance footage obtained by police.
Leigh then shot herself, falling onto a sidewalk and dropping a loaded gun between her and Galloway, Kenny said.
“Both had suffered gunshot wounds to the head,” he said.
The baby was unharmed in the shooting, Kenny said.
The three gunshots shattered the peace of an otherwise calm, tree-lined block, a stone’s throw from the mayor’s official residence.
“I heard yelling, and then I heard shots. I jumped into my doorway for cover,” a witness told The Post as sirens blared around him.
“And then I looked and I saw the lady with the white hair fall onto the sidewalk,” he said. “I thought something might have happened down by Gracie Mansion and she was hit by a stray bullet.
“But then when I went closer, I saw there was another woman lying behind the car who was also shot.”
Another witness, who gave his name as Mr. Rodriguez, said he pulled up for work just minutes before and heard gunshots. He and others alerted cops at Gracie Mansion about the shooting, he said.
“This is very sad,” he said. “This is a very nice neighborhood, very quiet, the police (are) close by.
“I never saw anything like this here.”
Cops found Galloway, bloodied but still breathing, slumped near the car’s rear, witnesses and sources said. Leigh lay on a sidewalk, a self-inflicted gunshot wound in her head, Kenny said.
Medics pronounced Leigh dead at the scene, while they rushed Galloway to Weill Cornell Medical Center, where doctors declared her dead on arrival, Kenny said.
Two guns were found near Leigh: a loaded 9-millimeter Glock pistol on the sidewalk near her, and another firearm inside a tote bag she was carrying, he said.
He said cops will investigate whether those are retirement weapons from Leigh’s time as a probation officer in Cook County.
Neither of the firearms had a history of being stolen in New York City, he said.
Meanwhile, NYPD investigators on Friday night were seen entering the Upper East Side building where Leigh had been living.
One of the cops later walked out with a cardboard box, the contents of which was unclear.
Galloway’s death sent ripples of grief beyond her Upper East Side enclave. Her fellow runners at the Central Park Track Club, where she was a longtime member, former board member and current advisory board member, spoke of their “heavy hearts” in a statement.
“She was a wonderful mother, a dedicated runner and a great friend to so many of us,” they wrote. “She had the biggest heart and touched everyone she met. She had also been a Fordham coach and was loved by all her athletes.
“She will be so missed by the entire club.”
Galloway’s attorney Matthew Ehrlich said he couldn’t get into details on the custody case because of attorney-client privilege.
“Quite frankly, I’m just devastated about what happened here,” he said. “You know, I’ve worked with Marissa for the last three years. And it’s an unfathomable tragedy that just happened today. This type of thing should’ve never happened.”
Her ex’s attorney, Nicky Rooz, asked for the family’s privacy to be respected.
“As you will appreciate, this is an extremely distressing situation for all concerned,” Rooz said in a statement. “We understand that the NYPD is investigating – it would be inappropriate for us to comment, and we trust you agree equally inappropriate for others to speculate.”
— Additional reporting by Steven Vago, Priscilla DeGregory and James Messerschmidt
