BREAKING NEWS: New York City police were hunting for a gunman Monday who shot and killed one person and wounded two others in an attack near Penn Station during the height of the city's morning rush hour.
Three people were shot near Penn Station on Monday morning. (Teresa Priolo/FOX5NY)
Cops are looking for one shooter who is possibly with two other people. The suspects may have fled in a dark-colored vehicle.
The shooting occurred after an argument in a McDonald's restaurant near 35th St. and Eighth Ave., police said during a Monday morning news conference. Several individuals were seated having coffee just after 6 a.m. when a heavy-set male in a black hoodie approached, authorities said. Grainy video reviewed by police showed the victims had a brief interaction with the suspected shooter, but cops said they don't believe the parties knew each other. When the three men walked out of the McDonald's, the male in the black hoodie allegedly followed and shot them with a 9-mm. pistol near the bottom of a stairway leading to a subway station.
Officials did not say what the argument may have been about and provided no motive for the shooting.
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, a police 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.
At least one of the men was able to give an account of the incident to police.
"This kind of thing doesn't happen over here"
Two men who attend a nearby methadone program at the West Midtown Medical Group said they knew two of the victims, one who was killed and one who was injured. They said both victims came to the clinic for years.
Neither said they witnessed the shooting.
"This kind of thing doesn't happen over here," said Michael Gessow, 39, of the Bronx. "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."
Richard Buckley, 59, of Queens, said: "I have never seen anything like this happen...This is terrible."
A security guard said no official at the clinic was available to comment early Monday.
Police said they could not immediately confirm that the victims were from the methadone clinic, where people with drug habits receive treatment, but investigators were interviewing officials and patients at the building, a half-block west of where the shooting occurred.
Police closed off 35th St. 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. 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 report.
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