Retired NYPD Detective Arrested for Road Rage Shooting on George Washington Bridge

Victor Romero, 62, a former NYPD detective, was charged with murder after a motorist was shot dead on the George Washington Bridge during Tuesday's evening rush.

Former NYPD detective charged with murder in George Washington Bridge shooting

Victor Romero, 62, a retired New York City police detective, was arrested Wednesday on a murder charge in connection with the road rage killing of a motorist on the George Washington Bridge, according to police. kcbd.com reported the arrest, citing the Associated Press.

The victim, Koran Irvine, 46, of Valley Cottage, New York, was found shortly after 7 p.m. Tuesday — unconscious and wounded in the driver's seat of his vehicle on the New Jersey-bound upper level of the bridge. He was pronounced dead at a hospital.

The shooting took place near the end of the evening rush hour and snarled traffic for hours on the busy Hudson River crossing, which connects Manhattan to Fort Lee, New Jersey. Closed lanes on the bridge were reopened approximately five hours after the incident, the Port Authority of New York and New Jersey said.

Romero, of Haverstraw, New York, left the NYPD in 2001 after being wounded in an off-duty shooting in June 2000, when men attempted to rob his family's laundromat in Brooklyn. He had served six years as a drug detective in Brooklyn at the time of that incident. A listed telephone number for Romero went unanswered, and no attorney representing him was immediately identified.

Irvine was employed by Con Edison. The utility confirmed his death in a statement, describing the shooting as a "senseless act of violence." "Our deepest condolences go out to his family, friends, colleagues, and everyone who knew and loved him," the company said.

The George Washington Bridge, opened to traffic in 1931, carries approximately 100 million vehicles per year. The Port Authority describes it as the world's busiest bridge. The structure and its entrances are extensively covered by cameras, which investigators are expected to have drawn on in identifying Romero as a suspect.

Source: Google News MT — Crime (en)