NEW ALBANY, Ind. (WDRB) -- A witness to Saturday's fatal shooting in New Albany said the victim, Kaitlyn Lee, was killed by a man with whom Lee had a "toxic relationship."

New Albany Police officers responded around 5 a.m. in the 130 block of Village Drive on the report of a woman who was shot. According to the probable cause affidavit, a witness told officers she and the victim, 25-year-old Lee, were making a TikTok video in the kitchen of an apartment when they heard someone banging on the window.

According to testimony in the court document from the witness, Lee asked the person outside "What are you doing here?" Police said the person outside was 25-year-old Joshua Thompson, who's accused of shooting Lee and is charged with her murder.

Lee was taken to UofL Hospital, where she later died. According to the probable cause affidavit, police reviewed the TikTok video showing Lee and the witness "laughing, dancing and lip-syncing to a song." Police said the video shows them stop at one point and turn away from the camera before a blast from the area of the window can be seen. Smoke could be seen hanging in the room before the video shuts off, police said.

New Albany Police Chief Todd Bailey said Lee and Thompson had a preexisting relationship. According to the probable cause affidavit, the witness told police Lee and Thompson were "always at odds with each other." The witness also told police that Lee previously told her if she was ever found dead, "Joshua killed her."

Kaitlyn Lee with family at zoo.jpeg

Kaitlyn Lee with her family.

Indiana court records show Thompson was charged April 17 with felony "Domestic battery committed in the presence of a child less than 16 years old." Three weeks later, a no contact order was issued against him.

Pamela Greenwell, Lee's aunt, said Monday that Lee "had to hop from place to place to be able to stay away from him." Greenwell said Lee was staying with a friend at the time of the murder, and several children were inside when the shooting happened.

"... There is no remorse," she said Monday after seeing Thompson in court. "He didn't want her. They had been separated.”

According to court documents, Thompson called his brother after the shooting, who told investigators that Thompson was "crying and distraught" on the phone. Thompson then called 911 at the advice of his brother and told a dispatcher he "shot the mother of his child," according to the probable cause affidavit.

Police said they interviewed Thompson, and he admitted to police that there was a no contact order active against him, and Lee was the petitioner. Court records also say Thompson knocked on the window with the barrel of his handgun hard enough to break the window and "admitted to pulling the trigger of the gun, which in turn shot Kaitlyn (Lee.)" The gun was recovered outside the window with a single spent shell casing.

Greenwell said Lee had three kids, and the youngest — a 1-year-old — was also Thompson's child.

During Thompson's initial hearing Monday, a judge set a trial date for March 24, 2025. He's being held in the Floyd County Jail without bond.

Greenwell walked out of the courthouse in tears.

"It was really hard," Greenwell said of the hearing. "Being around him for as long as what we've been around him, I thought he would, at least, not be as much of a coward to not even try to make eye contact with us. He didn't even try to make eye contact with anyone coming in or going out of the courthouse. I think that was the least he could've done."

Greenwell said Lee loved her kids and would do anything for them. She said Lee was a good mother. Greenwell considered Lee like one of her own kids, saying the families had lived together for many years while Lee was growing up.

"Kaitlyn was a very sweet girl," Greenwell said. "She would give the shirt off her back for anybody. She would take her shoes off her feet for anybody. She would walk barefooted in the rain. That's the kind of person Kaitlyn was."

Lee's family created a GoFundMe to cover the cost of her funeral and support her children. As of Monday afternoon, Greenwell said the family still needed $3,000 to cover Lee's funeral. To donate, click here.

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