A New York homeowner has shot and killed a woman who went to the wrong house with a group of friends – in eerily similar circumstances to the shooting of Black teenager Ralph Yarl.
Kaylin Gillis, 20, was travelling in a car with three friends when they made a wrong turn looking for a friend’s house in Hebron, upstate New York, on Saturday night.
The group accidentally drove into the driveway of homeowner Kevin Monahan, 65, who came out onto his porch and fired two shots, according to Washington County Sheriff Jeffrey Murphy.
Gillis was struck by one of the bullets.
“This is a very sad case of some young adults who were looking for a friend’s house and ended up at this man’s house who decided to come out with a firearm and discharge it,” said Sheriff Murphy at a press conference on Monday.
Due to the remote area where the shooting took place, the group drove to the neighboring town of Salem, northeast of Albany near the Vermont state line, and called 911, said Mr Murphy.
Emergency crews arrived and performed CPR on Gillis but couldn’t save her and she was pronunced dead.
When officers arrived at Mr Monahan’s house to investigate the shooting, he refused to come out, said the sheriff.
Authorities spoke with him through a 911 dispatcher and in person for about an hour before he was taken into custody, according to the sheriff.
Mr Monahan, 65, was arrested and charged with second-degree murder.
He was booked into the Warren County jail. It wasn’t clear whether he had an attorney who could speak on his behalf.
Mr Murphy said that Gillis, who lived in Schuylerville, "was an innocent young girl who was out with friends looking for another friend’s house".
He said there was "no reason for Mr Monahan to feel threatened".
The shooting happened just days after 16-year-old Ralph Yarl was shot and wounded in Kansas City, Missouri, after going to the wrong house to pick up his younger brothers.
Kansas City Police said that Ralph had gone to collect his siblings from a friend’s house on 115th Terrace in Kansas City, Missouri, on the evening of 13 April.
Police said that the teenager got muddled up with the address and accidentally went to a home on 115th Street by mistake.
There, Ralph allegedly rang the doorbell and the white homeowner Andrew Lester, 84, opened fire on him through a glass screen door using a .32 caliber revolver.
The aspiring Texas A&M University student was shot twice – once in the head and once in the arm.
According to a probable cause statement, Mr Lester told police he was in bed when he heard the doorbell ring and so he grabbed a handgun.
When he saw Ralph, he claimed he was “scared to death” at the boy’s size and feared he was unable to defend himself given his elderly age.
He claimed he thought the boy was trying to break in and so shot twice through his exterior glass door, the documents state.
However, Ralph told police from his bed at Children’s Mercy Hospital that he did not pull the door – but only pressed the doorbell – and there is no evidence to suggest he tried to enter the home.
He said he was waiting at the door when the man opened it and immediately shot him.
He fell to the ground and was shot a second time, he said.
After being shot, he said he heard the shooter warn him: “Don’t come around here.”
Ralph was rushed to hospital where the family said he was listed in critical condition.
He was released from hospital on Sunday to continue his recovery at home.
On Monday, Mr Lester was finally charged with assault in the first degree, which carries a punishment of 10 to 30 years or life imprisonment, and armed criminal action, which carries a punishment of 3 to 15 years, but has not been taken into custody.
Protesters have been demanding justice for Ralph and a growing chorus of celebrities are weighing in on the case, voicing outrage over the shooting and the treatment of his accused attacker.
