Global Courant 2023-04-19 20:20:56
Kaylin Gillis, the New York woman who authorities say died in a shooting after the car she was traveling in pulled into the wrong rural driveway, was in her boyfriend’s car when a group of young people got lost on their way to a Saturday night party.
Kevin Monahan, a 65-year-old grouch who neighbors say hated intruders and had a “short fuse,” is in jail in neighboring Warren County because Gillis’ father works at the jail in their Washington County home. according to local authorities. reports.
Gillis and a group of friends were looking for another friend’s house in the area, but faced low cell reception, a lack of internet and dark, unpaved roads, according to Washington County Sheriff Jeffrey J. Murphy.
They took a wrong turn in Monahan’s driveway.
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Kaylin Gillis was in a car that turned the wrong driveway in upstate New York Saturday night when the homeowner reportedly opened fire. The former high school cheerleader from nearby Schuylerville died of a gunshot wound. (Kaylin Gillis, Schuylerville Varsity Cheerleading/Facebook)
“We thought we were in the right place,” Gillis’ boyfriend, 19-year-old Blake Walsh, told NBC News Wednesday. “We didn’t have cell service to sort it out.”
When they realized they tried to turn around, he told the outlet.
“My friend said, ‘They’re shooting – go!'” Walsh said. “I tried to step on the gas as fast as I could, and then the fatal shot came through.”
But you can’t outrun bullets.
And one hit Gillis, according to the sheriff.
Kevin D. Monahan in a booking photo taken over the weekend. The 65-year-old man from rural New York is accused of fatally shooting a 20-year-old woman who was in a car that took a wrong turn in his private driveway. (Washington County Sheriff’s Office)
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Neighbors heard the sound and grabbed their phones. At the same time, Walsh and another friend, driving a separate vehicle, raced up the rural road in search of cell service.
At 9:53 p.m. Saturday, authorities received the first 911 call, which reported a shooting victim, Sheriff Murphy said. First responders rushed to Cemetery Road in Hebron and attempted to treat Gillis, but she succumbed to her injuries.
Kaylin Gillis loved dolphins and goats and wanted to become a veterinarian or marine biologist, according to an online obituary. (Kaylin Gillis/Facebook)
A separate call reported gunshots 5 miles away, on Patterson Hill Road, where Monahan lives, according to the sheriff. Deputies went there, but the sheriff said he was “uncooperative” and refused to come out to speak to the responding deputies. After several hours of standoff and with the help of a state police special operations team, he was arrested.
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Gillis and her friends had accidentally entered Monahan’s driveway, in an area with unpaved roads, little mobile internet and no internet connection, Murphy said Monday.
“They were actually looking for their friend’s house, got it wrong and pulled into his driveway,” Murphy said.
Washington County Sheriff Jeffrey Murphy provides an update on the death of Kaylin Gillis. Speaking to reporters earlier this week, he said the car she was traveling in had pulled into the wrong driveway. Homeowner Kevin Monahan reportedly opened fire before her friends could turn around and leave. (Washington County Sheriff’s Office)
A friend named Dallas Salls told the New York Times that a group of fellow graduates from Gillis’ hometown of Schuylerville were having a party. Gillis and her friends were on their way and apparently had trouble finding it.
“It’s shocking, but I’m not surprised,” said Monahan’s neighbor, Adam Matthews, told the New York Post. “He had a short fuse. There was never any doubt that he had a short fuse.”
Matthews called his neighbor a “narcissist” and said he was often enraged by intruders on his rural driveway.
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“It was always, ‘People just pull into my driveway and they think it’s a road,'” he told the newspaper. “He was very adamant about people not coming up, and for a long time he kept the bottom of his driveway closed off because so many people mistook it for a roadway because it’s so wide at the bottom.”
Monahan is due back in court on April 25 on charges of second-degree murder.
His attorney, Kurt Mausert, told the New York Times that his “elderly” client could reasonably be concerned that several vehicles would drive into his driveway at night.
“Is that a terrifying scenario? Well, maybe it is,” he said told the paper. “It’s not the simple scenario of these people taking a wrong turn and within 20 seconds of taking the wrong turn, this guy is blasting off on his deck.”
A woman who answered the phone at Mausert’s office Wednesday morning said he was not immediately available for comment.
Speaking separately to CBS News, he denied that there was a standoff with the police and said he was on the phone with Monahan while officers were outside without a warrant. He said he urged his client to surrender peacefully after learning of Gillis’ death.
Monahan’s wife, believed to be home at the time of the shooting, did not immediately respond to messages asking for comment.
Kaylin Gillis wanted to be a vet and never missed ‘Sunday dinner at Mi Mi’s’ until this week
Gillis turned 20 on Feb. 23. She wanted to be a veterinarian or marine biologist, according to an online obituary.
Kaylin Gillis in an undated photo. She turned 20 in late February and died Saturday of a gunshot wound after she and a group of friends drove into the wrong driveway in rural New York state, according to authorities. (GoFundMe)
She loved animals, and photos on her Facebook and Walsh’s show her feeding packages from animals at the zoo, on the beach, and elsewhere.
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She was a college cheerleader and performer who loved Disney movies, dolphins, tacos, and ice cream.
She will be buried on Friday.
In lieu of flowers, her family is asking for donations to your local chapter of the American Society for the Prevention of Cruelty to Animals — or to a GoFundMe campaign set up to create a scholarship in her name.
Michael Ruiz is a reporter for Fox News Digital. Story tips can be sent to [email protected] and on Twitter: @mikerreports
