A manhunt is underway across New York City after a 26-year-old Bronx security guard was shot dead in front of riders on a busy Midtown Manhattan subway platform on Saturday afternoon — the seventh murder in the city's transit system this year.
Darell Rodriguez was waiting for a northbound E train at the 53rd Street/7th Avenue station at about 12:20 p.m., heading home to University Heights after his shift working security at a Manhattan building, when an argument with another man escalated. Police say the dispute moved from the platform onto a train and back onto the platform, where the gunman pulled out a firearm and shot Rodriguez once in the chest.
A woman on the platform performed CPR on Rodriguez before emergency crews arrived. He was rushed to Bellevue Hospital, where he was pronounced dead shortly after 1 p.m. He had no criminal record.
The NYPD has released surveillance images of the suspect — a man in a red tracksuit, black vest and black face mask, carrying a backpack — who fled the station north on 7th Avenue and remains at large. Deputy Chief Keith Shine said on Sunday that what sparked the dispute remains unclear, but police are treating the shooting as targeted, not random, and say it is not yet known whether the two men knew each other. Patrols have been stepped up, and anyone with information is asked to call Crime Stoppers at 1-800-577-TIPS.
Rodriguez was a fraternal twin. His brother Derick, who serves in the Army in Texas and is returning home for the burial, learned of the death from a detective at their mother's home after his texts to his brother went unanswered. "It's like a black hole in your heart," he said. "It is grief, but it is something deeper because this is your half." In the Bronx, friends gathered at the barbershop once owned by Rodriguez's father remembered a quiet, stand-up young man who was never known to raise his voice.
The killing is the seventh murder in the transit system this year and the fourth by gun — up from two gun deaths over the same period in 2025, according to NYPD statistics. MTA Chief Security Officer Michael Kemper said the agency coordinated with the NYPD "from the earliest minutes," including retrieving video from platform and train cameras, and was blunt about the stakes: "Guns have no place in transit."
Riders at the scene were shaken. One Miami family visiting the city said taking the subway was supposed to be part of the New York experience — now they plan to avoid the trains entirely and take Ubers instead. Mayor Zohran Mamdani said he has full confidence in the NYPD's efforts to catch the gunman.