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Neighbor talks of murder/suicide couple's woes
Feb 20, 2011 10:58 am
Colin DeVries of The Daily Mail did some strong local reporting this weekend, interviewing neighbors of the Catskill couple involved in a deadly shooting near the train station in Poughkeepsie on Friday, February 18 that left a veteran police officer, Catskill resident Lee Welch, and his wife Jessica Welch dead of bullet wounds, and two children orphaned. According to the Welch's neighbors, according to DeVries, the couple were “good tenants” who “didn’t bother nobody.” Welch, 27, fatally shot his wife following an argument spurred on by his breaking of a restraining order he was under to stay away from her, their three year old daughter and her young son from a previous relationship. He then shot police officer John Falcone, an 18 year veteran of the Poughkeepsie police force, after the officer took the three year old from Welch's arms and attempted to restrain him as he fled toward the Poughkeepsie train station. After he shot Falcone, Welch then turned the gun on himself, taking his own life with a bullet to the head.
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No city police officers discharged their weapons, according to reports. The Welch's neighbnors said that the family moved to the rental home on Tool House Road property in April last year, and that Welch was employed with the Save-A-Lot distribution center in Coxsackie until he recently began collecting disability payments. But he also noted that Welch had started "always beating on his wife,” and was charged with third-degree assault against his wife, who was granted an order of protection, in late January. Welch violated the order and was charged Jan. 31 with felony criminal contempt and remanded to the Greene County Jail in lieu of $20,000 bail. Jessica Welch, 28, had then moved to Westchester County, according to reports, and was meeting Welch at the Poughkeepsie train station on Friday to take back her Chevy Blazer. The neighbor added that Welch had destroyed furniture in the house Thursday, leaving a slashed bed outside the home. A press conference on the matter was expected from Poughkeepsie police on Sunday, February 20.
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No city police officers discharged their weapons, according to reports. The Welch's neighbnors said that the family moved to the rental home on Tool House Road property in April last year, and that Welch was employed with the Save-A-Lot distribution center in Coxsackie until he recently began collecting disability payments. But he also noted that Welch had started "always beating on his wife,” and was charged with third-degree assault against his wife, who was granted an order of protection, in late January. Welch violated the order and was charged Jan. 31 with felony criminal contempt and remanded to the Greene County Jail in lieu of $20,000 bail. Jessica Welch, 28, had then moved to Westchester County, according to reports, and was meeting Welch at the Poughkeepsie train station on Friday to take back her Chevy Blazer. The neighbor added that Welch had destroyed furniture in the house Thursday, leaving a slashed bed outside the home. A press conference on the matter was expected from Poughkeepsie police on Sunday, February 20.