A young man killed in a senseless shooting in a Midtown Manhattan subway station was a devoted son who had taken on the burden of caring for his disabled father, who is now struggling to cope with the devastating loss and is unsure about the future.
Darrel Rodriguez, 26, died after collapsing in a pool of blood on the uptown E train platform at Seventh Ave. and W. 53rd St., despite desperate attempts to revive him after a teenage suspect shot him following an apparent argument on Saturday.
Rodriguez had just finished working a double shift as a security guard at a hotel downtown and was heading home to the Bronx, where he lived with his disabled dad, who is reeling from the loss of his son as well as his primary caregiver.
“He was an excellent son and a good boy,” said Fausto Rodriguez, 64. “I had a stroke and I had to sell my barbershop. After COVID, we couldn’t do it anymore.”
“He did my shopping, the cooking, and he cleaned everything,” Fausto said inside the family’s scrupulously swept kitchen. Since Darrel’s death, Fausto said his condition has deteriorated.
“I can’t sleep and I have more trouble than ever speaking,” he said.
“His life was work and taking care of his father,” Darrel’s aunt, Anna Picardo, said.
Without Darrel’s support, Fausto is unsure what he will do.
His other son, Derick, Darrel’s fraternal twin brother, is in the U.S. Army and lives in Texas.
In an interview with the New York Times, Derick told a reporter that he had a premonition about his brother’s death after a text he sent him on Sunday went unanswered.
“In my mind, I was like, something’s coming, but I don’t know when,” Derick said. He called his father, who told him Darrel hadn’t come home the night before.
Courtesy of Fausto Rodriguez
Darrel Rodriguez (pictured) was fatally shot on the northbound E train platform of the Seventh Ave. subway station at 53rd St. in Manhattan on Saturday, Oct. 17, 2026. (Courtesy of Fausto Rodriguez)
He told the Times he started calling police precincts. When he rang his mother, a detective who was with her told him Derick had been shot.
“It’s like a black hole in your heart,” Derick said. “It’s grief, but it’s something deeper because this is your other half.”
In his scant leisure time, Darrel pursued his hobbies. “He loved music and exercise,” Picardo said. “He was a boxer and he played guitar.”
Notes on a clipboard near Darrel’s bed that he wrote to himself before his untimely death are typical messages of encouragement for a person in their early 20s, but also hint at his dedication to shouldering the burden of caring for his father.
“What is stopping you is you. Your inactiveness to show up for yourself. Always show up for yourself,” reads one note. Another: “I need a hard path. I have to care.”
The slaying triggered an intense manhunt for the shooter, who was dressed like the comic book character Deadpool, in a distinctive red hoodie and mask.
The gunman, 17-year-old Xavian Collins, surrendered to police with his lawyer five days after the shooting.
Collins, who has no criminal history, according to police, was charged with murder and gun possession in Manhattan Supreme Court on Thursday.
Surveillance footage shows Collins boarding the E train brandishing a firearm and “pointing it directly at the victim at point-blank range,” ADA Madeline Holbrook said at his arraignment, noting that Rodriguez was “unarmed.”
“I want him in jail for like 60-70 years,” Fausto Rodriguez said after his arrest. “He killed my son. He deserves it. People like that don’t deserve to stay alive.”
Cops are still working to establish a motive in the slaying. At least one witness told police Collins was smoking marijuana on the train when Rodriguez confronted him about it. Police have since discounted that theory, sources with knowledge of the case said.
Photos retrieved from Collins’ phone, which he left at the scene, showed stacks of $100 bills, guns and apparent gang affiliation, Holbrook alleged at Collins’ arraignment.
The teen’s attorney, Michael Horn, rejected the prosecutor’s narrative. “With A.I…who knows these days if they’re real or not,” he said about the photos.
Collins pleaded not guilty and is being held without bail until his next court date.