The retired NYPD detective who fatally shot a driver in a road rage incident on the George Washington Bridge posted bail days after Manhattan prosecutors downgraded his charges from murder to manslaughter, the Daily News learned Saturday.
Victor Romero, 62, who is accused of “aggressively” tailgating Con Edison worker Koran Irvine before blasting a deadly gunshot through the victim’s rear windshield on Tuesday, made his $1 million bail and was released Friday, a day after he was arraigned in Manhattan Criminal Court, according to the New York City Department of Corrections Inmate lookup.
On Thursday, Irvine’s family, outraged over the reduced charge, questioned whether Romero got special treatment because he was a retired cop. They demanded for justice for Irvine, 46, a doting and encouraging father who worked hard and never missed his kids’ basketball games.
“This man was an ex-police officer, so he should know better. And he didn’t,” Irvine’s furious aunt, Gale Forde, said. “He purposely pointed his weapon, shot into a car, killing my nephew. And his charge was manslaughter, not murder. I can’t understand that. I can’t understand. Because if it was me or you, it would be murder.”
“I am upset. I’m hurt, and I’m not pleased with this court system,” Forde, 67, added. “Koran was on his way home from work, a hard day’s work, and stayed overtime.”
Describing Irvine’s death as “a particularly senseless killing,” Assistant District Attorney Max Sears said the Tuesday evening shooting on the New Jersey-bound upper level of the Hudson River span was sparked by “a near collision” between the two men as they approached the bridge, which was caught on surveillance video.
Driving a black Range Rover, a furious Romero pursued Irvine, tailgating him, “following closely and at times aggressively,” before quickly pulling to the right of Irvine’s car and firing into it as they drove beside each other, “still moving with the flow of traffic,” Sears said.
“The defendant’s gunshot entered through the back passenger window of the victim’s car and struck the victim in the right shoulder, killing him,” the prosecutor said.
Irvine, a Con Edison technician, was commuting home from his job in a dark blue Volkswagen hatchback. After he was struck by the bullet, his car came to an abrupt stop in flowing traffic, then lurched forward into the far right lane. Medics rushed the married father of two to Englewood Medical Center in New Jersey, but he could not be saved. A former longtime resident of Flatbush, Brooklyn, he his family had recently moved to Valley Cottage in Rockland County, N.Y.
Romero fled the scene, speeding around the left side of Irvine’s car, across the bridge and on to the Palisades, Sears said. The former narcotics detective was arrested the next day.
Romero joined the NYPD in 1994 and retired 25 years ago after seven years on the force. At the time of the bridge incident, he was working as a driver and private security.