- A New York man shot and killed a woman after the car she was in accidentally turned into his driveway, police say.
- Kevin Monahan, 65, was charged with second-degree murder in connection to the shooting.
Police arrested a New York man for shooting and killing a 20-year-old on Saturday night after the car she was riding in accidentally turned into the wrong driveway.
Kevin Monahan, 65, is now facing second-degree murder charges, Washington County Sheriff Jeffrey Murphy said at a press conference on Monday.
Monahan's arrest comes just four days after Kansas City police said 84-year-old Andrew Lester shot Ralph Yarl, a teenager who accidentally went to Lester's house and rang the doorbell while trying to pick up his younger brothers from a friend's home.
Gun violence has surpassed car accidents as the number one cause of death for people under the age of 18 since 2019, according to Everytown, a nonprofit that advocates against gun violence. Gun ownership, meanwhile, has risen significantly in recent years, skyrocketing during the Covid-19 pandemic.
The latest victim in New York, who police identified as Kaylin Gillis, was riding in a car with friends in search of another friend's house when they pulled into Monahan's driveway around 10 pm. Murphy said they were only in the driveway a short time before they realized the mistake and turned to leave.
It was then, Murphy said, that Monohan walked onto his porch and shot twice, hitting the car once. The group then drove to a nearby house where there was better cellphone service and called the police.
"It's a very rural area. There's dirt roads. There's not a lot of cellular service or any type of internet, so they were basically looking for their friend's house and mistaken," Murphy said.
Murphy said that Monahan was "not cooperative" when police responded to his home after the shooting and refused to come outside to talk to police.
"After approximately more than an hour of talking back and forth through 911 and trying to talk to him in person on the scene, he was taken into custody," Murphy said at the news conference.