A former New York City police detective pleaded not guilty Thursday to charges he shot and killed a motorist on New York’s George Washington Bridge Wednesday night.
Victor Romero, 62, was initially arrested on a murder charge but was arraigned on a lesser count of first-degree manslaughter stemming from the rush-hour shooting of 46-year-old Koran Irvine, an off-duty Con Edison worker and a married father of two children, that occurred after a near-collision on the bridge with a vehicle allegedly driven by Romero.
Romero was ordered held on $1 million bail.
Irvine’s sister, aunts and cousins attended Romero’s court hearing in New York City Thursday and complained to reporters that the former police officer was allegedly receiving special treatment.
“I was fuming. I was shaking to look at the back of the head of the man who killed my brother and have his lawyers humanize him when he left my brother to die like a dog,” Irvine’s sister, Zeria Irvine, said of seeing Romero in court.
Irvine’s aunt, Gale Forde, said she and her family are disappointed that Romero was not charged with murder.
“Koran was on his way home from work, a hard day’s work, and stayed overtime. Yet you had a retired police officer intentionally fire a bullet and kill him, and instead of it being murder, it’s called manslaughter,” Forde said.
Attorney Keith White, who is representing Irvine’s family, said after the arraignment that the family has not been allowed to see surveillance video that police described in an affidavit detailing the alleged incident.
The family members said Irvine did not know Romero.
Surveillance video showed that before the shooting, Irvine’s blue Volkswagen Golf swerved into another lane on the westbound deck of the George Washington Bridge and nearly collided with a black Range Rover driven by Romero, according to the police affidavit.
The Range Rover was seen on security footage speeding up and “following the victim’s vehicle closely, and in contrast to the greater distances that other vehicles maintained with respect to one another,” the affidavit said.
“Just after the defendant’s driver side door was in a position consistent with the point of entry of the bullet that struck and killed the victim, the victim’s vehicle slowed, veered to the right lane, and stopped in traffic,” according to the affidavit, which further states “the defendant’s vehicle then sped around the victim’s vehicle, passing on the left side, and traveled at a high rate of speed across the bridge.”
Irvine’s vehicle then “lurched across four lanes of traffic” and crashed into a center median, the police affidavit said, where first responders found he had died.
The bullet that killed Irvine passed through his vehicle’s rear passenger door and struck Irvine in the back of his right shoulder, according to the affidavit.
The Range Rover was registered to a company for which Romero works as a driver, the police affidavit said, and Romero told police that the vehicle was his when questioned Wednesday morning. Romero also “surrendered a loaded revolver that he told officers he always carries,” according to the affidavit.
Romero surrendered to police at the 33 Precinct in upper Manhattan on Wednesday and was arrested and charged with murder after being questioned, according to the NYPD.
Romero retired from the NYPD as a detective in 2001, a year after he was shot while off duty by armed robbers at his family-run laundromat in Brooklyn, law enforcement sources told ABC New York City station WABC.
A spokesperson for Con Edison confirmed on Wednesday that Irvine worked for the utility company and was off duty when he was fatally shot.
In a GoFundMe campaign that had raised more than $190,000 as of Thursday to help Irvine’s widow and two children, ages 11 and 14, family members described Irvine as a “beloved husband, father, family member, and friend.”
“We will deeply miss Koran’s jokes, his infectious smile, his laughter, and his zest for life,” reads a statement on the GoFundMe page. “He had a way of bringing joy to those around him, and his presence will be missed more than words can express. His passing leaves an unimaginable void in the hearts of everyone who knew and loved him.”
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