Man Shot and Killed at Brooklyn Borough Hall Station During Rush Hour Yesterday
Blood on walkway at Borough Hall subway station after shooting. NYPD says 1 dead pic.twitter.com/uZgLNbplHh
— Alex Silverman (@AlexSilverman) March 11, 2015
During rush hour yesterday evening in the Borough Hall subway station, one of Brooklyn’s busiest transportation hubs, a 69-year-old retired corrections officer pulled out a gun and shot and killed a man following a confrontation on the train. The New York Times reports, “the shooting happened just before 6:45 p.m. on the mezzanine level of the Borough Hall subway station in Downtown Brooklyn… police said the retired officer, who was armed with a 9-millimeter handgun in a holster, encountered two younger men while riding a southbound train. The older man stepped between the two, friends who were having a conversation… at which point an argument ensued. The argument turned physical on the train, the police said, and one of the younger men spit on the retired officer.”
Although the men separated while still on the train, after disembarking at Borough Hall, police said “the men encountered one another again and an argument again escalated into a physical confrontation. At one point, one of the men grabbed the retired officer from behind, the police said, and the older man pulled the gun from its holster.” The man who was shot, 32-year-old Gilbert Drogheo, died at Brooklyn Hospital Center, and the suspect was taken into custody. And while the president of the New York City Correction Officers’ Benevolent Association urged people not to presume anything or rush to judgment, one eyewitness to the shooting took a video which “shows a taller, older man approaching a younger man and shoving him. The two briefly struggle before a gunshot is heard.”
Trains were briefly re-routed from the station last night, but today’s commute resumed normally. Of course, this kind of incident is a rarity, and most days the risks of the subway system involve nothing more serious than getting on the dreaded “mysteriously empty while the rest of the train is packed” car, but it’s still wildly unsettling and yet another reminder that gun control is a topic that can never be discussed enough.
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