NEW YORK (1010 WINS/WCBS 880) – The NYPD released images of a suspect Thursday in Sunday night’s fatal shooting of a 45-year-old grandfather aboard a Brooklyn subway train.
Richard Henderson, a crossing guard from Crown Heights, was shot and killed as he tried to break up a fight around 8:15 p.m. aboard a Manhattan-bound 3 train approaching the Rockaway Avenue stop in Brownsville.
“He got shot stepping into an altercation that he had nothing to do with,” his widow, Jakeba Henderson, told the New York Times this week. She and her husband had been married for nearly 20 years. “He died a hero. He died doing what he did — taking up for the weak.”
Henderson, a father of three and grandfather of two kids, was heading home from an outing with friends when two passengers on his train began to fight over loud music and he intervened, according to police and the MTA. One of the passengers fired multiple shots, striking Henderson in the back and shoulder.
The train kept going after the shooting, and responding officers found the victim at the Franklin Avenue/Botanic Garden station—about six stops from where he’d been shot. He was critically wounded and died at NYC Health + Hospitals/Kings County.
Police said Thursday that the gunman “inadvertently” struck Henderson, suggesting he was aiming for the passenger he’d been arguing with. That passenger was apparently unharmed in the shooting, though it's unclear if he remained on the train or has spoken with police.
New photos show the suspect at the Utica Avenue train station, according to the NYPD.
Anyone with information is asked to call Crime Stoppers at 1-800-577-TIPS.