NEW YORK (1010 WINS/WCBS 880) – Three suspects were taken into custody Monday in connection with last Friday's fatal shooting on a Bronx subway train.
The trio—Justin Herde, 24, Alfredo Trinidad, 42, and Betty Cotto, 38—were busted within a day of police identifying them as the suspects in the mid-transit slaying near the 182nd–183rd Streets station in Fordham Heights. Charges against them were pending.
Police believe all three of them assaulted the victim, William Alvarez, 45, and then he was fatally shot on a southbound D train around 5 a.m. Friday.
NYPD Chief of Transit Michael Kemper said Friday that investigators believe one of the male suspects sat down next to Alvarez and "words were exchanged," leading to a dispute between them.
The argument escalated to a physical fight, and the second man and woman joined in the assault. "So now it's three on one," Kemper said, adding that the victim was not the primary aggressor in the altercation.
The trio ultimately fled at the 182nd–183rd Streets station, leaving Alvarez dying on the train with a gunshot wound to the chest, according to police. He was pronounced dead at St. Barnabas Hospital shortly before 6 a.m.
MTA Chairman Janno Lieber on Friday credited an initiative to install cameras on subway trains with helping in this case.
"The whole incident was recorded on a camera that was inside the subway car," Lieber said.
At the same news conference, Kemper had said he was confident arrests would be made "in the near future" thanks to the clear surveillance footage.
While transit crime was up 46.1% in January, a safety briefing Monday, Kemper said transit crime is actually down 13% so far this year compared to the same period last year.
A number of high-profile subway crimes have made headlines in recent weeks, including a mass shooting at the Mount Eden station in the Bronx earlier this month that left a bystander dead and five people wounded. Just weeks before that in Brooklyn, a 45-year-old grandfather was fatally shot as he tried to break up a fight on a 3 train.
"Those were isolated incidents," Kemper said of the two Bronx shootings. "And we understand the riders concerns—trust me we do."
The chief said 1,000 additional officers a day are patrolling the transit system to help address riders' concerns.