Boyfriend of woman fatally shot in wrong driveway recalls her final moments

The boyfriend of a 20-year-old woman who was fatally shot by an upstate New York homeowner after the couple accidentally pulled into the wrong driveway had to drive for five miles to get cell service to call 911.

Blake Walsh, 19, recalled the terrifying final moments spent with his girlfriend of over four years, Kaylin Gillis, as he sped to get help after she was shot in the neck at a property in Hebron.

“It did not feel like that,” Walsh told NBC News of the five-mile drive to get cell service. “It felt like 30 seconds. The adrenaline rush was so bad.”

Walsh, who was driving Gillis and two others, said the deadly turn of events had begun because he had been searching for a friend’s house and pulled into the wrong driveway.

“We thought we were at the right address,” Walsh recalled. “We didn’t have any cell service to figure it out. As soon as we figured it out that we were at the wrong location, we started to leave, and that’s when everything happened.”

As Walsh was turning his Ford Explorer around to leave, the owner of the property, Kevin Monahan, 65, allegedly fired two shots at the vehicle from his patio, striking Gillis in the neck with one of the bullets.

“My friend said, ‘They’re shooting — go!’ I tried to step on the gas as fast as I could, and that’s when the fatal shot came through,” Walsh told NBC, later adding through tears, “I want to believe it was instant. I’m hoping it was. I’m praying it was.”

Gillis was pronounced dead when first responders finally reached the car. The house the group had been searching for had been just half a mile further up the road from Monahan’s driveway.

Walsh said he and Gillis met when he was a sophomore in high school and often talked about being part of the “2%,” referring to a statistic that claims only 2% of high school sweethearts ever get married.

“I had high hopes, and I had plans,” Walsh said. “I didn’t want to be with anybody else, and I wanted to spend the rest of my life with her.”

The grieving boyfriend added: “I want the world to know how good of a person she really was and how much she impacted everybody who had the fortunate opportunity to be in her life.”

Angelique and Andrew Gillis, the woman’s devastated parents, remembered their daughter as a “beautiful soul” who had “so much to live for and so many dreams.”

Monahan, who was described by a neighbor as a “narcissist” with a “short fuse” was charged with second-degree murder on Sunday and pleaded not guilty. He is being held at the Warren County jail and is expected to appear in court on Wednesday.

Walsh told NBC he plans to attend Monahan’s bond hearing, where he hopes he will be punished to the fullest extent of the law.

“I need to see who took my girlfriend away from me,” Walsh said. “I need to look at him.”