A terminally ill former probation officer who shot and killed his former stepdaughter on the Upper East Side and then committed suicide had a mysterious note in his pocket when he died, sources told The Washington Post.
According to sources, the note was addressed to “police.”
The bullet was found in the pants of Kathleen Lee, who killed her former stepdaughter, Marisa Galloway, on East 88th Street Friday morning. Police say the murder was sparked by a bitter custody battle over Lee’s granddaughter.
The contents of the note were not immediately clear.
Police said Galloway, a 45-year-old mother of two, had put her 1-year-old daughter in the backseat of a parked white Honda Civic during an apparent custody battle when Lee shot her in the head and back.
Lee then took her own life. The baby was not harmed by the gunfire.
The special education teacher was fighting for custody of a 4-year-old girl born to Lee’s son.
Lee, a 65-year-old retired probation officer from Cook County, Illinois, was battling terminal cancer and was living on East 79th Street with his son while undergoing treatment.
Lee’s daughter declined to comment when contacted by The Washington Post on Saturday.
Although Galloway’s grandmother had frequently complained to neighbors that he was abusing the 4-year-old girl, that picture did not match the one painted by the young woman’s neighbors as a caring, loving mother.
“She was just so wonderful and loved her children,” one tearful resident of Galloway’s East 86th Street apartment told The Washington Post.
Police received five reports of domestic incidents involving Galloway and her ex-husband between July and November 2021. Sources said in multiple reports the father complained that his daughter had come home with bruises.
Two cases led to complaints to the Department of Child Welfare that were later determined to be unfounded, sources said.
According to sources, the couple have shared custody after their separation, with the father having custody from Friday to Monday and Galloway looking after their daughter the rest of the week.
NYPD Chief of Detectives Joseph Kenney said police used security camera footage to show Lee shooting Galloway once just after Galloway loaded his younger daughter and a stroller into his car, then firing another shot in Galloway’s back while he was lying on the ground and then shooting himself in the head.
Witnesses and officials said Galloway was found bloody but still breathing, lying near the rear of the car, while Lee was lying on the ground nearby. Two handguns were recovered.
Lee was pronounced dead at the scene, and Galloway was rushed to Weill Cornell Medical Center, where medics pronounced him dead on arrival, Kenney said.
Additional reporting by Georgette Roberts, Dean Balsamini and Georgia Worrell
