A Former Prison Guard Shot and Killed a Man at a Brooklyn Subway Station Last Night

A retired New York City corrections officer fatally shot a man after an argument in Brooklyn's Borough Hall subway station around 6:45 PM on Tuesday.

According to witnesses who spoke to local papers and the NYPD, the 69-year-old retiree was wearing a 9mm handgun in a holster. As he boarded a Brooklyn-bound 4 train at the Bowling Green stop in lower Manhattan, he stepped between two friends in the middle of a conversation. The two men promptly began "talking mad trash," as one witness told the Daily News. One spit on the former guard, according to the New York Times, and when the older man tried to get off at the Borough Hall station, one of the younger men punched him.

"He just clocked the guy," a witness told the Daily News. "The older man was taken back. I saw him pull the gun out of the pocket."

Subway passengers screamed "gun!" and took flight, but the confrontation wasn't over.

Popping a clip into his handgun, the former corrections officer reportedly gave chase, and, on the mezzanine level, scuffled with a man cops are identifying as Gilbert Drogheo, a 32-year-old from Harlem. In the ensuing struggle, the handgun went off once, striking Drogheo in the torso, killing him.

The NYPD has yet to identify the 69-year-old—who was taken to Long Island College Hospital after the incident—nor Drogheo's friend, who was arrested on scene.

It was not immediately clear where the retired officer had worked in the city's corrections system. But Norman Seabrook, the president of the New York City Correction Officers' Benevolent Association who has long opposed reforming Rikers Island, is standing by his man, according to the Times.

"I believe that we should wait until all circumstances are in before rushing to judgment," Seabrook said, adding that the retiree was "forced to use his weapon."

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