Ex-corrections officer questioned after fatal NYC subway shooting
NEW YORK - Police sought answers Wednesday from a retired corrections officer after his dispute with a pair of strangers ended with a fatal shooting that spread panic in a New York City subway station at the height of the evening rush hour.
The former officer, whose name was not made public, shot Gilbert Drogheo at about 6:30 p.m. Tuesday at the Borough Hall station in Brooklyn, police said. Investigators took him into custody but later released him without charges after he agreed to meet on Wednesday for more questioning.
The mayhem began when the 69-year-old retired officer boarded a Brooklyn-bound subway train in Manhattan, police said. He was armed with a small Ruger handgun that he was licensed to carry in public, they said.
According to witnesses, it appeared that the former officer angered Drogheo, 32, of Harlem, and another younger man by stepping in between them while they were talking, police said. The men and the officer argued before they pushed him down into an empty seat on the train, police said.
All three men exited the train at the next stop in Brooklyn, where there was a second confrontation on the station's mezzanine level, police said. The retired officer tussled with Drogheo before pulling his weapon and firing one round that struck the victim in the chest, witnesses said.
New York Police Department officers assigned to the station heard the gunshot and quickly detained the suspected shooter. Drogheo died at the hospital. His companion was taken into custody.
According to CBS New York, under New York City law, retired law enforcement officers with permits to carry guns must retreat unless they are facing deadly physical force.
The station broadcast a cellphone video showing a man - identified by the station as the retired officer - cornering a smaller man near an exit in the Brooklyn subway station and pushing him. The men are seen struggling before a gunshot is heard and bystanders scatter.