A New Orleans woman has been shot and killed by her boyfriend in front of her three children, police say.
According to police records, Lostin Lee, 34, killed Keisha Cherrie Gray, 34, then set up the crime scene to appear as if he acted in self-defense.
Lee was arrested and charged with second-degree murder Thursday evening after he shot Gray on the 3800 block of General Taylor Street.
The victim was the mother of three: a 6-month-old boy, a 2-year-old girl and a 14-year-old boy. The suspect is the father of two of the three children, who witnessed the murder, according to Gray’s aunt, Veronica Speed.
In an unlikely turn of events, Lee called the police to report the crime. When authorities arrived, they found Gray lying in a pool of blood with a gunshot wound to her cheek, according to a police affidavit.
Gray is now the eighth female victim to be murdered in New Orleans since April.
Lee told investigators that “he was visiting his mother’s house when Gray called to say she wanted him to move out, because she learned that he was cheating on her, according to the police affidavit, which was filed in Criminal District Court,” according to a NOLA report. “He said he went to their home and found her packing his belongings. He told police he tried to talk to her but that she went to the kitchen, grabbed a knife and threatened him.”
He added that out of fear for his life, he shot the weapon at her direction. He then grabbed the children and fled the scene. They all went to his mother’s home before heading to a local restaurant to meet with relatives, according to police records. When he returned to the crime scene, he called police.
Police say Gray “didn’t have a knife in her hand, but that two knives had been placed under her legs,” the report added. “They wrote in the affidavit that they had no records of previous domestic violence incidents involving Lee, and no records of calls for help from the couple’s address this year.”
Speed says Gray was “always had been a people person, always willing to help somebody.” And just last week, she celebrated the graduation of her oldest child who completed middle school.
“She was so happy and looking forward to see him walk across that [high school] stage in about four years,” Speed said.
Gray, who grew up in Central City, graduated from McDonough 35 High School and studied health administration at Delgado Community College, according to her Facebook page. She was currently working as a secretary at East Jefferson General Hospital when she was brutally killed, according to Speed.
The pubic defender’s office is representing Lee who has been detained on a $500,000 bail set by Magistrate Commissioner Jay Daniels.
