NEW YORK (AP) — Three people were shot, one fatally, in midtown Manhattan near Penn Station early Monday morning, police said. No suspects were immediately arrested.
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.
A law enforcement official who spoke to The Associated Press on condition of anonymity because he wasn't authorized to publicly discuss an ongoing investigation said the three men were shot during a dispute outside a McDonald's restaurant, two storefronts down from the subway entrance. The official said 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.
