An off-duty city correction officer of Guyanese parentage who aspired to join the NYPD was shot and killed in a possible road rage incident in Queens early Friday morning, police and family members said.
According to a report in the the New York Post today, Jonathan Narain, 27, was in his 2013 maroon Honda Accord on his way to work at Rikers Island when a motorcyclist blasted him once in the head on 120th Street and 103rd Avenue in Richmond Hill at around 1:45 a.m., cops said.
The correction officer who had nearly two years on the job had just stopped at a store to pick up food before his life was cut short, authorities said.
Emergency responders rushed Narain – who lived less than a mile away – to Jamaica Hospital where he was pronounced dead.
NYPD Chief of Citywide Investigations William Aubry said surveillance footage from the scene revealed that the victim was making a U-turn when he had an initial encounter with the motorcyclist, the New York Post reported.
Moments later, the motorcyclist pulled up alongside Narain’s car, which was stopped at a traffic light.
“There was a short exchange of what we believe was a conversation — very, very short, only seconds, and then the shot was fired,” Aubry said.
The suspect, who police described as a dark-skinned man wearing dark clothing and a helmet, shot Narain one time in the left temple before fleeing.
Police say that Narain was armed at the time, but his gun was not out. Authorities do not believe that the fatal attack was work-related.
According to the New York Post, hours after the shooting, Narain’s devastated mother – a retired school cook for the Department of Education — showed up to the scene and gazed at the Honda her son died in.
“His mom is really taking it hard. Everybody is taking it hard. We have a big family, and none of us expected this,” said Narain’s cousin Kevin Ramdhani, 29.
Ramdhani called Narain “a good guy” and “a good cousin.”
Narain, a Hindu, who was active with his madrasa in East New York, Brooklyn, had dreams of joining the NYPD and had recently passed an entrance exam, Ramdhani said, noting that Narain “loved” working for the Department of Correction.
Narain’s killer remains at-large.
