Man Charged With Murder in Shooting of Woman Who Went Up Wrong Driveway

A man in upstate New York was charged with murder Monday in the killing of a woman who was in a car that mistakenly drove into his driveway, officials said.

The woman and the three friends she was with never got out of the car Saturday night, Jeffrey J. Murphy, the Washington County sheriff, said at a news conference. They were turning around after realizing their error when the man, Kevin Monahan, 65, stepped out of his house, in Hebron, New York, and fired at least two shots at the car, the sheriff said.

One of the bullets struck the woman, Kaylin Gillis, 20, and the group drove about 6 miles to a nearby town before they got through to 911, Murphy said. Emergency services workers responded and performed lifesaving measures on Gillis, but she was pronounced dead, the sheriff said.

Murphy described the killing of Gillis, who lived in Schuylerville, New York, about 20 miles from where the shooting happened, as “very sad.” He said he knew “for a fact that she comes from a good family” that he knew personally.

“She was an innocent young girl who was out with friends looking for another friend’s house,” the sheriff said, adding, “Unfortunately, they drove up this driveway.”

Monahan was being held at a local jail and was expected to appear before a county court judge “in the near future,” Murphy said.

Kurt Mausert, a lawyer for Monahan, said his client owned a contracting business, had lived in Washington County for 30 years and had no previous convictions.

“My preliminary view of this case is that it was a series of errors which resulted in a tragedy,” Mausert said. “It is too soon to say more than that.”

The shooting occurred late Saturday in a section of Washington County, about 60 miles northeast of Albany, where many roads are made of dirt and not well lit and where there is little cellphone or internet service, Murphy said.

Around 9:30 p.m., dispatchers received the 911 call about a possible shooting victim in Salem, New York, Murphy said. About the same time, they received 911 calls about shots being fired on the road where Monahan lives, Murphy said.

When officers arrived at the house, the sheriff said, Monahan was uncommunicative and would not come out. He was taken into custody after about an hour, the sheriff said.

Murphy declined to comment on what kind of gun Monahan had used or whether any other weapons had been found at the house. He emphasized that no one had gotten out of the car before Monahan began firing.

“There was no reason for Mr. Monahan to feel threatened,” Murphy said, “especially as it appears the vehicle was leaving.”

The circumstances surrounding Gillis’ killing resembled, in some ways, those of a shooting in Kansas City, Missouri, several days earlier involving a Black teenager who was shot twice by a white homeowner after mistakenly ringing the wrong doorbell.

The shooting left the teenager, Ralph Yarl, 16, in critical condition with a gunshot wound in his head, according to his family members and their lawyers. They said he had been on his way to pick up his younger twin brothers at a friend’s house but had gone to the wrong house about a block away.

After being taken into custody, the homeowner in that shooting was initially released after 24 hours with no charges filed against him, a decision that touched off protests. On Monday, the man, Andrew D. Lester, was charged with first-degree assault.

In the Washington County shooting, Monahan is white, as was Gillis.

This article originally appeared in The New York Times .