shooting in subway entrance to PENN STATION

http://m.nydailynews.com/new-york/killed-wounded-shooting-penn-station-article-1.2427909


A shooter killed a 43-year-old and wounded two other men, one critically, inside a subway entrance near Penn Station Monday morning, authorities said.

The assailant has not been captured, but sources say three men were seen fleeing the scene of the shooting near the intersection of 35th St. and Eighth Ave. in a silver vehicle around 6:15 a.m.
NYPD officers at the scene where three men were shot inside a subway station.
Anthony DelMundo/New York Daily News
NYPD officers at the scene where three men were shot inside a subway station.

Responders found the dead man on the steps of a subway entrance, with a gunshot wound to the neck, and the other two victims on the street.

The gunfire critically wounded a 45-year-old man who was struck in the neck and abdomen. Another man, 48-year-old Ed Torres, was shot in the leg, law enforcement sources said. First responders rushed both men to Bellevue Hospital. The fatal victim's name is being withheld by the Daily News until the family is notified.
Police stand outside the McDonald's where the victims reportedly spoke to the gunman. The restaurant is a notorious hangout for drug addicts.
Angus Mordant/for New York Daily News
Police stand outside the McDonald's where the victims reportedly spoke to the gunman. The restaurant is a notorious hangout for drug addicts.

The deadly altercation started in a nearby McDonald's, police said. Several people having coffee there got into an argument, and were approached by the suspected gunman, who spoke with them and left, said Chief of Detectives Robert Boyce.

The victims then walked out of the restaurant, and the gunman followed them into the station and fired four shots at the bottom of the stairs, Boyce said. The shooter appeared to use a 9mm handgun, he said.

People in the neighborhoodsaid the three victims all knew each other from the West Midtown Medical Group methadone clinic, just a couple blocks from the crime scene.

"They were cool cats," said Edmund Pieters, 52, another member of the clinic.

"They would just come down, get their methadone, a coffee and chill. I don't know what happened. It's crazy. It's a whole new world down here at night."

Boyce told reporters the shooting"doesn't look like it has anything to do with the methadone clinic."

Police described the shooter as a heavyset male in a black hoodie, and said he did not appear to know the victims. There might be two other suspects, authorities said.
policeman
Splash News
An officer stands guard at entrance of a subway station, with a cane lying on the ground nearby.

Thanks to its proximity to the methadone clinic, the fast food joint is a notorious haven for drug addicts. A New York Times report from July said addicts called the location "zombie McDonald's."

"That McDonald's always has a lot of junkies around there," said Joe Sarcone, 36, a homeless man in the area who takes his wife to the clinic.

"Nine out of 10 times it's always nothing but people trying to get off pills, heroin or trying to cop it, trying to sell it."

Sarcone said he was walking with his wife to the clinic when they heard an argument and, moments later, saw the gunman draw his weapon. The couple heard shots as they ran for safety.

"I just saw the motion," he said. "I seen them arguing and I'm like, 'What the hell? It's too early for this.'"

The intersection where the shooting happened is one block north of where the A, C and E subway lines converge at Penn Station. Police have closed several streets surrounding the area.

At least two bus routes, M20 and M34A, are being detoured as police investigate the triple shooting.