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Amherst Police Says Fatal Shooting Was a Murder-Suicide

By Eileen Buckley

Amherst, NY – Amherst Police are investigating a murder-suicide that occurred Tuesday night in the parking lot of a pizzeria.

Two bodies were discovered shot inside a car in the parking lot Leonardi's Pizza at the the corner Millersport and Longmeadow in Eggertsville. The manager of the pizzeria contacted police around 11:30pm after noticing that a car had been in the lot for sometime.

Police say 35-year-old Denine Reese of Cheektowaga was shot to death. Gregory Ellis of Buffalo, 36, was in the back of the car with a self-inflicted gunshot wound. Amherst Police Captain Timothy Green says Reese had attended a class earlier Tuesday night at Canisius College's satellite campus on Corporate Parkway in Amherst.

"We are aware that they had a relationship at one time. But I don't believe they were currently in any kind of relationship," Green said. "She was working on a college degree. It appears to be an ongoing domestic situation."

Ellis was transported to a hospital where he later died. Captain Green says Reese was planning to leave the area for a job.