Crime & Safety

UPDATE: Pratt Professor Involved In Pa. Shooting Dies

Monica Shay, a longtime professor, had been in critical condition after brutal attack in rural Pennsylvania country home last weekend.

Update, July 7, 6:30 p.m.: NY1 reports that Monica Shay, director the arts and cultural management department at Pratt, has died.

Her husband, Paul Shay, and a girlfriend of a nephew were also wounded in the attack at the couple's country home outside Philadelphia last weekend. Two others, including a 2-year-old boy, were killed at the scene.

For a school used to getting alerts about crimes—large and small—around its Clinton Hill campus, word last weekend that longtime Pratt professor Monica Shay was the victim of brutal attack in rural Pennsylvania carried with it a whiff of cruel irony.

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"I constantly get emails about shootings, muggings, rapings, things like that," said Lior Ofir, who studies fashion at Pratt, reacting Tuesday to news of the incident. "We're told to be careful of certain areas...but that's close to campus."

According to police, a gunman entered a country house in Douglass Township, Pa. owned by Shay and her husband, Paul, and shot both of them in the head on Saturday night. The man also shot Paul Shay's nephew, Joseph Shay, his girlfriend, Kathryn Erdmann, and her 2-year-old son. 

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Joseph Shay and the toddler, Gregory, died from their wounds. The rest of the victims, including Monica Shay, remain in critical condition.

For many Pratt faculty, students and staff, word of the shooting came via an email sent Monday afternoon by Concetta Stewart, dean of the School of Art and Design.

"Professor Shay is a beloved colleague, teacher and friend to many of us and our thoughts and prayers are with her and her family during this difficult time," Stewart wrote.

Shay is director of Pratt's Art and Cultural Management Program, a master's degree concentration based at the school's Manhattan campus. 

, police believe the shooting was the result of a plot by Mark Richard Geisenheyner, who was disgruntled over contracting work done at the Shay's residence in Manhattan's East Village. 

“It's very clear that in the mind of the killer, the motive for his crimes was revenge against Paul Shay,” said Montgomery County District Attorney Risa Ferman.

Geisenheyner was killed during a standoff in a home in nearby Delaware County, Pa. on Monday.

Both Monica and Paul Shay are expected to survive, the DA said. 


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