MIDTOWN — A man was fatally shot in the neck and two others were injured when a gunman opened fire on them in Penn Station at the start of Monday's morning rush, police said.
Angel Quiñones, 43, William Lamboy, 45, and Ed Torres, 48, were drinking coffee in a McDonald's at 490 Eighth Ave., near West 35th Street, when a man in a black hoodie entered and walked over to them to start a conversation with them that escalated into a dispute, NYPD Chief of Detectives Robert Boyce said.
Investigators believe the Quiñones, and his two friends who all frequented the nearby methadone clinic, regularly sold drugs around the McDonalds and that the man in the hoodie was trying to take over their territory, sources said.
The three men left the fast food restaurant and walked to the nearby A C E station, followed by the man in the hoodie, said NYPD's Chief of Detectives Robert Boyce.
Passersby saw the suspect pull out his silver pistol and walk to the station, where he fired four rounds at the men at about 6:15 a.m., officials and witnesses said.
"Everybody started scattering. People were like, 'Oh my God! Oh my God,'" said Joe Sarcone, 36.
News quickly reached the McDonald's patrons.
"Someone came running into the McDonald's and said, 'He got shot!'" said Susan Camie, 57, who'd been with two of the men just moments before.
Camie saw Quiñones lying at the bottom of the subway entrance with a gunshot wound to his neck, she said.
"I looked down the steps and there he was down on the floor. Blood was pouring out of his head. There was a big puddle. He was on his side. He wasn't moving," she said.
"It was horrible."
Quiñones, the father of a 13-year-old boy, was pronounced dead at the scene, police said.
Camie spotted Lamboy, who had been struck in the neck and stomach, on the sidewalk.
"He was sitting on the floor, on the sidewalk. He was sitting up holding his stomach. Blood was all over him. People were trying to talk to him," Camie told DNAinfo New York.
He and the third man were treated at Bellevue Hospital, police said. The 45-year-old was listed in critical condition, police said.
Torres was shot in the leg and is in stable condition, police said. Investigators are interviewing him, Boyce said.
Friends remembered Quiñones as a loving father.
"He was a good guy, real good-hearted. He had a 13-year-old son. He was a real good father," said Joey Ocasio, 35.
"Words can't express the heart that man had."
Camie said the men all frequented the McDonald's, which was the subject of a July New York Times story that described it as a haven for drug addicts who regularly fall asleep at the tables and openly drink alcohol.
It's a "throwback to a seedier era of New York City" partly because it's so close to several drug treatment facilities, the Times reported.
There were no immediate arrests in the Monday morning shooting.
Police are looking for a silver sedan that was seen leaving the scene, officials said. The shooter may have been with two other people, Boyce said.
Investigators are also talking with staff at nearby drug treatment clinics.
Streets around the shooting scene were closed off for the police investigation.
Street closures in the area of 35 St. & 8th Ave in Manhattan due to police investigation. Use alternate routes.
— NYPD NEWS (@NYPDnews) November 9, 2015
