Posted by ksantiag August 04, 2009 20:00PM
NEWARK -- Kelley McKenith had to reload her 9-mm service weapon in order to fire a total of 15 shots Monday, killing her 4-month-old son and critically wounding her boyfriend. She then turned the gun on herself.
A day later, colleagues and relatives of the respected and quiet Essex County corrections officer struggled for an explanation
| Street warriors hold a prayer gathering over murders |
"She was a well regarded positive employee," said Alfaro Ortiz, acting director of the Essex County Jail. "People are in shock. They are surprised she was involved in anything like this."
There was no indication she was suffering from post-partum depression, Ortiz added.
The carnage began when McKenith, 39, hired by the Essex County Corrections Office in February 2005, used her service weapon to shoot her boyfriend, Louis Goosby, 28, three times in the leg and the ear.
McKenith's other child, 19-year-old La-Toya McKenith, was somewhere inside her mother's Huntington Terrace home during the shooting, but escaped unhurt, Essex County Prosecutor Paula T. Dow said.
Mike McKenith, Kelley's nephew, said her family, mostly based in Aynor, S.C., was shocked when they heard what happened.
"I started crying," the 19-year-old said during a phone interview. "I couldn't believe it. It was hard. She always took care of me, just like any aunt."
He said a number of relatives planned to travel from the state to Newark before deciding funeral arrangements.
Dow said she did not know what specifically led McKenith to shoot Goosby, who had lived with her for more than a year and, investigators believe, fathered her infant son.
"We're fairly certain it is domestic-related," she said. "That's how we are classifying it."
Newark police at the scene where Essex County Corrections Officer Kelley McKenith killed her baby and herself, after she wounded her boyfriend on Huntington Terrace in Newark's South Ward Monday.Goosby jumped out of a second-story window before 4 p.m. to escape the assault and remained in critical but stable condition at University Hospital tonight, police said. Roughly an hour after McKenith shot Goosby, she agreed to surrender and bring her baby out unharmed. Then police heard gunfire.
McKenith apparently fired two shots, striking the child once in the chest before shooting herself in the head, said city Detective Todd McClendon. Both victims were rushed to University Hospital, where they later died.
Authorities still did not know how Goosby and McKenith met.
Goosby has a record that includes convictions for drug-dealing, weapons possession and death by auto, and he passed through Essex County Jail, where McKenith worked, at least five times dating to 1998, including two days in January.
But after reviewing jail records, Ortiz said McKenith and Goosby were not at the jail at the same time.
"They could have known each other before or after," said Ortiz, referring to Goosby's arrest.
Johnny Goosby said he became alarmed when he learned from friends that his grandson had been shot.
"I was shocked," he said. "By who? His girlfriend? What?"
Johnny Goosby said there was no indication that McKenith would shoot his grandson or their son.
"She's a nice girl. She was really quiet," Goosby said, describing McKenith as a soft-spoken person.
King Sau, a Newark anti-violence activist and Goosby's uncle, said Goosby was trying to put his life together after his prison time.
"He was looking for work like every young man, but it was hard," Sau said.
Kaire McKenith was the eighth minor, and the second infant, slain in Essex County this year, according to Paul Loriquet, spokesman for the Essex County Prosecutor's Office.
Staff writer James Queally contributed to this report.
| Newark officials talk about Kelly McKenith who killed her baby and herself |
Previous coverage
No comments:
Post a Comment