A beloved Con Ed worker killed by a retired NYPD cop in a fatal road rage shooting on the George Washington Bridge was remembered Friday as a fun-loving father and a “beacon of warmth and kindness” to his family and friends.
Relatives and co-workers filled the Christian Cultural Center in Starrett City, Brooklyn, to honor the life of Koran Irvine, 46, who was killed last month on his way home from work.
“He was a professional and a great person,” said Con Ed co-worker Matt Muni, 47, said outside the Christian Cultural Center. “The best human being. He took charge of everything. He respected the equipment, he respected the power that comes with it, because it’s electricity, you know? He treated everybody the same. Everybody.”
At one of the church entrances, two Con Ed trucks propped up an American flag and a flag for Local 1-2, the Utility Workers Union of America.
Con Edison trucks also blocked nearby roads by entrances at spots where NYPD vehicles would usually stand sentry.
Barry Williams / New York Daily News
Mourners embrace following the funeral of Koran Irvine in Brooklyn on Friday. (Barry Williams / New York Daily News)
Even though Irvine took his work seriously, Muni said he was always smiling.
“He always talked about his family. Always,” Muni said. “ And he was a huge Jets fan. I’m a Giants fan, so we busted each other’s balls about that. That was it. That’s all we talked about. But it was mostly work.”
Irvine, a husband and father, was on his way home from work Oct. 20 when he nearly collided with an irate Range Rover driver, Victor Romero, 62.
Investigators said Romero, who retired from the NYPD two decades ago, opened fire on Irvine’s Volkswagen on the Manhattan side of the bridge on the W. 179th St. entrance ramp. Irvine was shot in the shoulder.
The bullet travelled to his head, police said, but he managed to continue onto the bridge before crashing in the middle of the span.
A bullet hole was found in the rear windshield, police sources said. Medics rushed Irvine to Englewood Medical Center in New Jersey, where he died.
Koran Irvine (pictured) was fatally shot in his car by a fellow driver during a road rage clash on the George Washington Bridge on Oct. 20, 2026. (Instagram)
Prosecutors initially charged Romero with manslaughter, but he was later indicted on second-degree murder. He was released on $1 million bail.
Mourner Maria Carpenter, 62, said she just met the victim and his wife in August on a seven-day cruise from New Jersey to the Bahamas.
“From day one, we hung out every day,” Carpenter said. “It was like a family member. Like we knew him for years. He was an amazing man.”
Barry Williams/ New York Daily News
The funeral procession of Koran Irvine leaves the Christian Cultural Center in Brooklyn on Friday. (Barry Williams/ New York Daily News)
Muni, Irvine’s co-worker, said the service was too sad for him to sit all the way through it.
“I actually walked out a lot. I couldn’t take it,” Muni said. “The main thing about people like him, when we lose him, the world loses him. If the whole world was like him, we wouldn’t have to worry about things like this.”