EAST NEW YORK — The boyfriend of an MTA conductor who police said murdered her just steps from the home they shared with their 4-year-old son was "always jealous," the conductor's grieving family said.
Zire King, 44, has been on the lam since police questioned and released him following Monday night's fatal shooting that left Jacqueline Dicks, 41, dead a block from their Elton Avenue Apartment.
He told investigators that he had met Dicks after her shift on the N train ended about 11:41 p.m. Monday — and was walking her home when he split up with her to stop at a store about a block from their apartment, NYPD Chief of Detectives Bob Boyce said during a press conference Tuesday.
King also said he saw a group of men run up to Dicks and shoot her, but that he was unable to see their faces due to a passing car's headlights, according to reports and officials.
But when police pored over an "extensive amount of video" recovered from the scene, they saw King and Jacqueline talking near where the shooting happened and then have video of the boyfriend walking back to his car directly after the shooting, Boyce said at another press conference Wednesday.
"We did a search warrant on that car and we found a .40 caliber handgun in the trunk of the car. We believe that to be the murder weapon," Boyce said. "We also found that he picked up her bag with the phone in it and also put it in the trunk."
Police plan to charge King with second-degree murder once they find him, Boyce added.
Dicks' daughter, reeling from the news after her mother's death said King was "always jealous" towards her mother, with whom he had a 4-year-old son.
"They had like, your basic relationship problems. He was always jealous. He's a cowardly man. You can't even call him a man, he's a cowardly little boy," Tatiana Dicks, 24, said through tears at their home Wednesday. "I've watched him cry over my mother but I never thought he would take her life. I need him caught."
Tatiana said she wants to ask King why he "had to take my mother," who left behind six children and three grandchildren, including Tatiana Dicks' 1-year-old daughter.
"I'm shocked. How can you take your son's mother away from them and their siblings?" the daughter said. "My mother was the best. Everybody loved her. She was truly loved by everyone."
A memorial rose up at the scene where Dicks was shot on Elton Avenue near Flatlands Avenue.
DNAinfo/Noah Hurowitz
“We have full confidence in the NYPD,” TWU Local 100 Secretary-Treasurer Earl Phillips said. "We hope they soon catch the bastard and put him in a jail cell where he belongs."
