Two unarmed men who a witness told Metro were ‘talking trash” to a 69-year-old retired New York City corrections officer got a little more than they bargained for when one of them punched him — and he shot the man dead. A brawl erupted at the Borough Hall Street train station Tuesday night just after 6:30 p.m., the NYPD said Wednesday morning.
“The dispute escalated into a physical confrontation, in the mezzanine area of the station, when the 69 year-old male fired one round from a firearm,” the NYPD said.
Cops identified the dead man, from Harlem, as Gilbert Drogheo, 32. He was taken to Mt.Sinai’s Brooklyn Hospital Center with a bullet wound to the torso and later died.
Drogheo, an unidentified pal and the shooter, William Groomes, got into it after boarding the Brooklyn-bound 4 at Bowling Green in Manhattan, authorities said.
One of the men reportedly used the N-word with Groomes, who took offense.
Thomas Berry, 30, told Metro’s Andrea Park (see Tuesday night’s original post below), that things escalated when the train got to Borough Hall.
“He had to walk through them and one started talking trash and he was saying, ‘Don’t touch me. Get out of my face,’ and everybody on the train was trying to mind their business but they were getting loud,” Berry said. :”I saw the older man pull out the gun from his pocket and people were like ‘It’s a gun’ … I saw the older guy put the clip in the gun and he looked like he was getting in the position to shoot him so we all ran off the train,” Berry told Metro. “The two dudes ran up the stairs and the guy was all calm with the gun in his hand and walked up the stairs and everybody ran down the stairs. Not even 40 seconds later we heard a pop.” The weapon was a 9mm that the corrections office was licensed to carry, officials said.
— John A. Oswald
Original post:
Retired corrections officer kills man in deadly subway scuffle: Reports
A 29-year-old man died after being shot in the chest at the Brooklyn Borough Hall subway station Tuesday night.
Various outlets reported that the shooter is an unidentified former corrections officer who was being harassed by two men on a crowded Brooklyn-bound 5 train at around 6:30 p.m.
Police did not release the name of the two men said to have started the brawl — one of whom died at Brooklyn Hospital Center.
Rider Thomas Berry told Metro that he was coming home from work on the 5 train and saw two young men start an argument on the train with an older man when he got on the train at Bowling Green.
“He tried to get on and he had to walk through them and one started talking trash and he was saying, ‘Don’t touch me. Get out of my face,’ and everybody on the train was trying to mind their business but they were getting loud,” Berry said.
Thomas then said he then saw one of the young men push the older man onto the floor as they approached Borough Hall station.
“I saw the older man pull out the gun from his pocket and people were like ‘It’s a gun’ … I saw the older guy put the clip in the gun and he looked like he was getting in the position to shoot him so we all ran off the train. The two dudes ran up the stairs and the guy was all calm with the gun in his hand and walked up the stairs and everybody ran down the stairs. Not even 40 seconds later we heard a pop.”
While NYPD officials were not able to confirm what caused the fight or what led to the deadly escalation, some on social networking claimed to have witnessed the incident.
Just saw old dude pull a gun on two dudes on the 5 train and then someone got shot at borough hall. Standing in station with doors open…
— 登夢 (@majide_hontoni) March 10, 2015
I had a bad feeling about the two assholes who started the shit but then old g pulls out a gun like wtf? Thought it was a taser at first
— 登夢 (@majide_hontoni) March 10, 2015
Young dude who talked all that shit ran like hell when old man pulled a gun. The other almost got popped in his ribs at close range. No clip
— 登夢 (@majide_hontoni) March 10, 2015
That old man wasn’t having it. He loaded the clip all calm and collected and went right for those boys. He was done. Pure chaos
— 登夢 (@majide_hontoni) March 10, 2015
