[NJ] Essex Co. Corrections Officer Kelley McKenith and baby Kaire McKenith are gone

An Essex County corrections officer shot and critically injured her boyfriend [Louis Goosby], then held police at bay for nearly two hours until turning the gun on her infant son [Kaire], fatally wounding the baby before killing herself yesterday afternoon... [Newark Police Director Garry] McCarthy and Essex County Executive Joseph N. DiVincenzo Jr. said they believed the gun McKenith used was her service weapon, issued by the county corrections department. DiVincenzo said McKenith had an exemplary work record, leaving supervisors and colleagues to grasp for answers...

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DOMESTIC DISPUTE IN NEWARK ENDS IN TRAGIC MURDER OF BABY AND CORRECTIONS OFFICER SUICIDE
Newjerseynewsroom.COM
Andy Lagomarsino,
Monday, 03 August 2009 22:11
[Excerpts] The Newark Police Department's Homicide Squad in conjunction with the Essex County Prosecutor's Office are in the very early stages of a joint investigation into a domestic dispute that ended in a murder suicide. According to preliminary information, shortly before 4 p.m. 39 year-old Kelley McKenith, an Essex County Corrections Officer, was involved in a domestic dispute during which time she shot her boyfriend at his 19 Huntington Terrace residence in Newark. Newark Police responded to the scene where they were met by the boyfriend, described only as a 28 year-old Newark man who escaped the residence through a window after being shot in the leg and ear. The victim was transported to UMDNJ where he is listed in critical but stable condition. McKenith barricaded herself inside the residence with her four-month-old baby boy. Newark police patrol units quickly established a perimeter until the Department's Emergency Service Unit (ESU) arrived and initiated communications through a negotiator. A short time later police heard shots inside the apartment at which time the ESU breached the premises and discovered the infant suffering a single gun shot wound to the chest and the mother suffering a gunshot wound to the head. Both mother and child were rushed to UMDNJ where they were both pronounced dead a short time later. Police recovered McKenith's service weapon at the scene and believe it is the same weapon used in Monday's shootings. [LINK]

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N.J. OFFICER KILLS 4-MONTH-OLD CHILD, THEN HERSELF
Nobody Is Sure What Caused Corrections Officer Kelly McKenith To Shoot Boyfriend, Turn Gun On Defenseless Son
NEWARK (CBS)
Aug 4, 2009 6:10 am US/Eastern
[Excerpts] A New Jersey corrections officer shot her boyfriend and then turned the gun on her 4-month-old son and herself inside a Newark apartment on Monday afternoon. Outside the home where two lives were snatched away police stood guard Monday night, while witnesses relived the bloody scene of a father jumping out a window after being shot twice by the mother of his child... [Johnny] Goosby was stunned to hear that his grandson, Lewis Goosby, was almost killed at the hands, police said, of his girlfriend, Kelly McKenith. "She's a nice girl. Nice girl"... But something went horribly wrong with the corrections officer, just back from maternity leave... Police said McKenith, 39, had her 4-month-old son with her when police surrounded her building... "She said that she was going to come out. She assured the detective that she was going to come out. She wanted to put pajamas on the child and she needed to get dressed. A short time later is when we heard the shots from inside," [Newark Police Director Garry] McCarthy said. Police said McKenith shot her son in the chest and then herself in the head, a stunning and sudden end to both lives. "Heartbreaking, just heartbreaking," neighbor Karen Parker said... [Full article here]

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CORRECTIONS OFFICER KILLS SELF AND HER BABY
Star Ledger
James Queally
Tuesday, August 04, 2009
[Excerpts] An Essex County corrections officer shot and critically injured her boyfriend, then held police at bay for nearly two hours until turning the gun on her infant son, fatally wounding the baby before killing herself yesterday afternoon... Kelley R. McKenith, 39, of Newark was pronounced dead at 5:48 p.m. at University Hospital just minutes after her 4-month-old son, Kaire McKenith, was pronounced dead from a single gunshot wound to the chest... McKenith, who was hired by the Essex County Corrections Office in February 2005 and worked at the county jail in Newark, shot her boyfriend Louis Goosby, 28, three times, striking him at least once in the leg and grazing his ear... Authorities and neighbors believe Goosby is the baby's father... McKenith barricaded herself inside the house with the baby, forcing police to establish a perimeter and set up a mobile command post... Over the next hour, a police negotiator made contact several times with McKenith, who agreed to surrender and bring the baby out, unharmed, as soon as she got dressed... Neighbors screamed when they heard what had happened. One woman collapsed in tears in the middle of the street... McCarthy and Essex County Executive Joseph N. DiVincenzo Jr. said they believed the gun McKenith used was her service weapon, issued by the county corrections department. DiVincenzo said McKenith had an exemplary work record, leaving supervisors and colleagues to grasp for answers. "She was a good employee, and she did her job well at our correctional center," he said. "There was nothing she was ever written up on. She followed procedures. It's just a terrible, terrible tragedy. What made her flip? What made her snap? Nobody can understand how something like this could have happened." DiVincenzo said McKenith had recently returned from maternity leave. Internal affairs investigators were exploring the possibility McKenith met Goosby while he was an inmate at the county jail. Goosby has a record that includes convictions for drug-dealing, weapons possession and death by auto. DiVincenzo said investigators would seek to match up the dates to determine whether Goosby was in the county lockup while McKenith worked there... A family friend, who only identified himself as "Zak," said Mc-Kenith was a lifelong Newark resident who always made a point of staying out of trouble. "She never had a record, never did nothing," he said. "She didn't drink, she didn't smoke. Kelly was a good girl. All her life, she was a good girl"... [Full article here]

In the Matter of Kelly McKenith et al.
DOP Docket Nos. 2004-4425, 2005-3, 2005-4, and 2005-5
(Merit System Board, decided February 9, 2005)
[Excerpts] Kelly McKenith and Francisco Torres, represented by William D. Sayers, Esq., and Khalid Nash and Shawn Heyward, represented by Ciro Spina III, Esq., appeal their termination from employment as County Correction Officers with the County of Essex... It is further ordered that Kelly McKenith, Francisco Torres, and Shawn Heyward be reinstated and granted back pay, benefits and seniority from June 8, 2004 to the date of their actual reinstatement... [Full PDF document here
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