By Rich Bockmann
A devoted father was shot and killed Friday morning as he waited outside South Jamaica’s 40 Projects to pick his young daughter up and take her to school, the victim’s grieving family said.
Kelly Mullins, 33, left his childhood home in South Ozone Park early in the morning and headed out to collect his 4-year-old daughter from the South Jamaica Houses where she was staying with her mom, Mullins’ grieving mother said.
“He was very, very close with his daughter,” Kathryn Mullins said of her only son.
Kathryn said Kelly was on the phone with his step sister waiting for his daughter, Kaylin, to come down when the gunman walked up to him and fired around five shots, hitting the father twice.
“He didn’t even get out of the car,” she explained. “It’s not like [the shooter] felt threatened.”
Police said they arrived on the scene just before 7 a.m. and pronounced Kelly dead. They had not identified any suspects as of Friday afternoon.
Kathryn said she did not know who the man was, but people told her they had seen him walking around with Kelly’s former wife, Cameo.
After six years of marriage, Kelly and Cameo decide to call it quits around two years ago, Kathryn said, and she described their relationship as on-again-and-off-again.
“She’s a good person, not a bad person,” Kathryn said, explaining that Cameo was not allowed to see her daughter while the police conduct their investigation. “She’s feeling it.”
Reach reporter Rich Bockmann by e-mail at rbockmann@cnglocal.com or by phone at 718-260-4574.
