Police investigate Greenlawn shooting that seriously injured woman

A 40-year-old Greenlawn woman was seriously injured in a domestic-related shooting on Leigh Street, turning a quiet residential block into an overnight crime scene and sending Suffolk County police across county lines to find the suspect.

Suffolk County police said the shooting happened at 12:52 a.m. Thursday, June 4, when a man shot the woman and fled. Emergency crews took the victim to a local hospital for treatment of serious injuries. Detectives from the Second Squad asked anyone with information to come forward, as investigators worked to piece together how the violence unfolded on a street lined with homes.

Neighbors said the gunfire woke people on the block and left them confronting a chaotic scene outside. One resident tried to help after seeing blood and feared the woman might already be dead. Another said the street had seen police activity before, but nothing as severe as a shooting that left a woman critically hurt in the middle of the night. The violence landed in a neighborhood where residents would normally expect lights, porches and parked cars, not an active domestic shooting.

Later, investigators arrested Eric Giovanni Whilby, 37, of Greenlawn, in Westchester County and charged him with assault and criminal possession of a weapon. The arrest underscored how quickly a domestic violence emergency can shift from a local call on a residential street to a multi-county search. For Suffolk investigators, the case also highlighted the speed with which a person can flee after a shooting, leaving neighbors, officers and emergency medical crews to respond before the full picture is known.

The shooting fits a familiar warning pattern in domestic violence cases: escalation can happen in ordinary places, with little warning to anyone nearby until gunfire breaks the silence. Police urged residents with information to contact detectives or Crime Stoppers, and anyone who sees a domestic dispute turning physical or involving a weapon should call 911 immediately. In Greenlawn, the investigation now centers on how a late-night dispute became a serious shooting on a block where neighbors were left shaken and a woman was left fighting to recover.