Ex-NYPD cop charged with fatally shooting wife

NEW YORK - A former New York City Police officer is charged with fatally shooting his wife in the couple's Queens home over the weekend while their children were there.

Police said Sunday that 43-year-old Kevin Canty is charged with second-degree murder and criminal use of a firearm. Police said officers responding to his residence in the Ozone Park section at 11 a.m. Saturday found his 40-year-old wife, Jessica, with multiple gunshot wounds to her stomach. She was declared dead when she was brought to Jamaica Hospital.

Canty retired from the police force last May. He became an officer in December 1994. It was not immediately clear who will represent him in court.

Police said two children were in the home at the time but it is unclear whether they witnessed the shooting, reports CBS New York.

Heidi Gamble, a woman who was in the neighborhood when the shots rang out, told CBS New York's radio affiliate 1010 WINS that the children ran out of the home and into a nearby bodega after the shots rang out.

"They came in screaming, crying, saying their dad just shot their mom and there's blood all over, please help," Gamble said.

Other witnesses told the station that the husband tried to flee and steal a car following the shooting, but police caught up to him and took him into custody.