Man Slain Waiting for Daughters : Violence: He is gunned down as he comes to pick up children from visit with his estranged wife. His mother-in-law is held in the killing.

A 73-year-old Northridge woman, upset that her son-in-law was awarded sole custody of her daughter’s two girls, allegedly shot and killed the man when he came to pick up the children after a visit, police said Monday.

Music producer Kenneth Lisi, 43, of Lancaster, was shot several times at close range Sunday night, while standing on the doorstep of his estranged wife’s home, police said. He had come to pick up his daughters, ages 4 and 11, from a weekend visit with their mother.

Lisi was shot without warning after his mother-in-law answered the door, said Detective Rick Swanston of the Los Angeles Police Department’s West Valley station.

“She just opened fire on him,” Swanston said. “He knocks on the door and asks if the kids are there; she says, ‘The kids aren’t here, my daughter isn’t here and you’re not going to see the kids again.’ . . . She wanted him dead.”

Police said Lisi’s wife, Pamela, and the girls were not home at the time.

Lisi’s parents were waiting for him in a nearby vehicle and witnessed their son’s slaying. They watched as Lisi was shot once in the leg, and they subdued the woman after she shot him several more times in the upper chest, police said.

“It is very tragic,” said his father, Ernest Lisi. “I have no idea why it happened. I haven’t the slightest idea why she did what she did.”

Lisi was treated at the scene by paramedics, but died at Northridge Hospital Medical Center a short time after the 7:20 p.m. shooting.

Police arrested Jo Lula Haynes, who lived in the Louise Avenue home with her daughter, on murder charges. She was ordered held without bail in Van Nuys Jail pending an arraignment set for today.

Pamela Lisi could not be reached for comment. Superior Court Judge Robert M. Letteau on Monday ordered police to deliver the girls into the custody of county social workers until a suitable family member can be found to care for them. He said it would be “detrimental” to the children’s welfare for them to be returned to their mother.

On Aug. 12, Letteau awarded Lisi sole custody of the girls, in part because the mother has lupus, a disease that he said requires “significant medication,” and because he said Pamela Lisi was relying on relatives to care for the girls. Lisi filed for divorce from his wife last November, after 15 years of marriage.

Lisi’s father and colleagues said he was a creative and likable man.

“He was just a very nice, mild-mannered guy. Very creative,” said Anthony Hatch, a spokesman for Walt Disney Imagineering, where Lisi worked as a producer of music and voice casting for use in Disney theme parks worldwide. “We are all extremely saddened, just very very sad, very down.”

Suzanne Harris, who represented Pamela Lisi in the divorce proceeding, said her client and Haynes had never expressed any indications of violence. “She is a very nice older lady, a very gentle lady,” Harris said of Haynes.

Times correspondent Thom Mrozek contributed to this article.