{"id":74563,"date":"2025-12-31T10:12:07","date_gmt":"2025-12-31T10:12:07","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/74563\/"},"modified":"2025-12-31T10:12:07","modified_gmt":"2025-12-31T10:12:07","slug":"victim-shooter-in-murder-suicide-identified","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/74563\/","title":{"rendered":"Victim, shooter in murder\/suicide identified"},"content":{"rendered":"

The victim in a murder\/suicide during a custody exchange early Friday afternoon<\/a> in Upper Darby has been identified as 34-year-old Shantal Snowden.<\/p>\n

Her assailant, who died Monday night after being taken off life support from a self-inflicted gunshot wound, has been identified as 45-year-old Jackson Mlay of the 200 block of Copley Road.<\/p>\n

\u201cThis is another tragic and unacceptable example of domestic violence,\u201d said Upper Darby Police Superintendent Timothy Bernhardt Tuesday. \u201cIn my view, this individual was a coward. Taking the life of another person, especially the mother of his children, is a truly cowardly act. He committed this act in front of two of his children and the victim\u2019s young child, while leaving a 13-year-old inside the home. As a result, four children are now without parents.\u201d<\/p>\n

Bernhardt said Friday that police were called about 12:09 p.m. for a shooting at Copley Road and Locust Street. Police went to that location and found Snowden and Mlay suffering from gunshot wounds.<\/p>\n

Both had been shot in the head, Bernhardt said. Snowden was declared dead at the scene and Mlay was transported to a nearby hospital for life-saving treatment.<\/p>\n

The investigation showed that Snowden was there to pick up three small children from Mlay. The kids were put into the back of her Honda Pilot, parked on Locust facing Copley between Copley and Ashby Road, and Snowden got into the driver\u2019s seat.<\/p>\n

Mlay also got into the passenger seat. An argument ensued in the car that ended with Mlay shooting Snowden in the head, exiting the vehicle, then shooting himself in the head as well, Bernhardt said.<\/p>\n

Arriving officers took Snowden out of the vehicle and placed her in the street while taking life-saving measures to no avail, Bernhardt said. Mlay was rushed off for surgery, but was kept alive through Monday only with the help of machines.<\/p>\n

A neighbor took the children from the car and brought them to their house until police arrived. They are now with Snowden\u2019s parents.<\/p>\n

\u201cThis is a devastating and senseless ending to something that never should have occurred,\u201d said Bernhardt. \u201cThere were other ways to address his issues. We ask the public to keep the children in their thoughts and prayers. We are in contact with the family, and support services are being provided to the children and surviving family members.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"The victim in a murder\/suicide during a custody exchange early Friday afternoon in Upper Darby has been identified…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":74564,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[13],"tags":[202,212,182,139,28,210,147,149,148,150],"class_list":{"0":"post-74563","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-upper-darby","8":"tag-crime-and-public-safety","9":"tag-delaware-county","10":"tag-local-news","11":"tag-news","12":"tag-pennsylvania","13":"tag-top-stories-dtd","14":"tag-upper-darby","15":"tag-upper-darby-headlines","16":"tag-upper-darby-news","17":"tag-upper-darby-township"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/74563","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=74563"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/74563\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/74564"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=74563"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=74563"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=74563"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}