At press time police were continuing their desperate search for the gunman behind the shooting of three people, one fatally, in midtown Manhattan near Penn Station early Monday morning.
A law enforcement official who spoke on condition of anonymity because he wasn’t authorized to publicly discuss an ongoing investigation said the three men were shot following a dispute outside a McDonald’s restaurant, two storefronts down from the busy subway entrance.
The suspects were alleged to have followed the victims following their dispute, and the shooting happened at about 6 a.m. near the entrance of a subway station at 35th Street and Eighth Avenue, a block north of Penn Station, one of the nation’s busiest transit hubs. The gunfire caused panic among early morning commuters.
The suspects were thought to have fled northbound on Eighth Avenue in a dark-colored vehicle.
A 43-year-old man was shot once in the neck and was pronounced dead at the bottom of the stairs in the subway station, the official said. The second victim, a 45-year-old man, was shot twice in the neck and torso and taken to Bellevue Hospital in critical condition. The third victim, a 48-year-old man, was shot in the right thigh and taken to the hospital with non-life-threatening injuries.
The law enforcement official identified the dead victim as Angel Quinones. He identified the man in critical condition as William Lamboy and the other the man as Eddy Torres.
The official said all three victims had long records of mostly drug-related arrests.
Two men who attend a nearby methadone program at the West Midtown Medical Group said they knew two of the victims, the one who was killed and one who was injured. They said both victims came to the clinic for years.
Police said they could not immediately confirm that. A security guard said no official at the clinic was available to comment early Monday.
“This kind of thing doesn’t happen over here,” said Michael Gessow, 39, of the Bronx, who said he has been coming to the clinic for 10 years. “There’s a group of us here that don’t let things like this go down here. They were real nice guys, straight guys. I can’t believe it.”
Police closed off 35th Street between Seventh and Eighth avenues. Detectives were interviewing people at a McDonald’s near the subway entrance, where a cane could be seen resting on the top steps. Investigators also were interviewing officials and patients at the methadone clinic a half-block west of where the shooting occurred.
It was not immediately known if the A, C and E subway lines were affected by the shooting, but two entrances were taped off. There was a heavy police presence at the scene.
The Associated Press contributed to this article
How can this happen NYC has the strictest gun control in the world.
Exactly. Crime/murder/etc. fills union coffers. Follow the money.
Guns are too easy to get in this country. I know many people that bought MORE guns because Obama was elected the first time. He did nothing about gun control in his first term except allow guns in national parks. Now, he’s finally trying to do the minimal things that a civilized country should do about guns.
So you would leave guns for only the criminals and none for the citizens to protect ourselves? You also need to consider that the Muslim, Marxist in the White House wants to eliminate our guns so we are easier to conquer.
We already have thousands of gun laws on the books. Good, law-abiding citizens don’t commit these crimes: CRIMINALS do!!! Right now some good guys have guns and a lot of bad guys have guns. You would now take guns from the good guys so that only bad guys have them? Hitler had the same idea about guns in 1930’s Germany. Guess what happened there!
What would that be, Russ, follow Switzerland’s lead and issue guns to every family in the country, excepting the mentally ill and felons?
There is a town in Kentucky requiring every household to have a weapon for protection. Their crime rate is among the lowest in the country. Criminals do not want to break into a home where there is a very good possibility that they will be shot.
Simply stated, it cannot happen! Gun control always works which is why the ex- mayor is so enthused about it. Damn guns, jumping off tables everywhere and just shooting people indiscriminately.
dumb ass politicians in new york
Cities with the strictest gun laws have the highest gun murder rates simply because criminals don’t give a hoot (to be polite) about gun laws. Cities with the strictest gun laws simply create victim zones.
Hopefully the shooters can be found and brought to justice.
the Constitution gives us the right to have guns to protect ourselves with. Stop with the Gun Laws as all it does is let the criminal know who has guns and those who don’t. Signs in stores that say no guns allowed in here, have just given the criminal to know that they don’t carry guns in that store they have just given them the perfect store to rob. We will still keep our guns so that if a thug decides to come into my home they will be shot period.