MTA MURDER MYSTERY
Conductor executed on her way home Cops grill boyfriend in B’klyn shooting
THE MYSTERIOUS murder of an MTA conductor executed with a bullet to the head left her older brother heartbroken — and convinced the killing was premeditated.
“It wasn’t a robbery, it was personal,” said Tyrone Dicks, 55, about the Monday night murder of his 41-year-old sister. “I think there’s a motive behind it. I don’t know what it is.”
Investigators were taking a hard look at victim Jacqueline Dicks’ boyfriend, who picked her up at the end of a 3 p.m.-to-11 p.m. shift and drove her home before the shooting, according to a police source.
“There’s some inconsistencies in his statement,” the source said.
Police were searching for security video to see if his tale of what happened matched the recording.
Jacqueline Dicks, a single mother of six, was headed home from work about 11:40 p.m. when a single shot rang out in East New York, police said. Nothing was stolen from her as she died on the Brooklyn pavement.
A high-caliber shell casing was recovered, cops said.
Dicks — who was also a grandmother of three children — had been picked up a short time earlier by her boyfriend in his silver 2009 Mercedes-Benz, police said.
He told cops that he was walking to a nearby store as she strolled to her home when the killing occurred in the blink of an eye.
The boyfriend said he saw a dark-colored vehicle speed off and two men in dark-colored clothes run past him after the gunshot, police said. No arrests were made as the investigation continued.
A source said the boyfriend told police that he couldn’t see the suspects very well because the car’s headlights temporarily blinded him.
The slain woman, the youngest of six kids herself, joined the Metropolitan Transportation Authority only 11 months ago.
“She was happy to have the job,” said co-worker and fellow subway conductor Tramell Thompson. “I don’t even think she finished probation yet.”
Dicks made headlines in the late ’90s because of her relationship with Tyrone Rolle, the infamous “Silver Gun Rapist.” Dicks was the serial sexual predator’s girlfriend, and she was accused in January 1997 of aiding Rolle in a plot to murder a witness at his upcoming trial.
She arranged a three-way phone conversation with Rolle and a hit man — who turned out to be an undercover officer. Rolle was convicted in 1999 and given a 225-year prison term.
According to an MTA source, Dicks was hired at NYC Transit because the arrest was so old and she came clean about the case.
Her record was unsullied in the intervening years, and she passed all drug and medical tests, so MTA officials felt she shouldn’t be disqualified from working as a conductor, according to the source.
Her children ranged in age from 4 to 24, and she was left to raise them alone when her husband suffered a fatal heart attack about eight years ago on a Philadelphia bus, relatives said.
“She was a very loved lady, she genuinely loved everybody,” said her 22-year-old son Michael Dicks. “My heart is heavy right now. I’m just trying to have her lead me in the right direction.
“She was just trying to do better for our family.”
Relatives and co-workers gathered Tuesday evening near the corner where Dicks was killed to cry, pray and comfort one another.
Michelle Dicks said her aunt was thrilled by her job on the subways.
“She loved it,” said the niece. “She had nothing negative to say . ... When she got her job at the transit, she sent all of us a picture of her ID.”
Advocates Without Borders offered a $2,500 reward to anyone with information about the shooting.
Sibling Tyrone Dicks said he was still trying to make sense Tuesday morning of what happened on Elton St. near Cozine Ave.
“She was just coming home from work,” he said. “She didn’t deserve it.”
The brother said he got a call from one of his nephews with the awful news.
“He just told me to look at the news,” Dicks said. “My sister had been shot, and he said she was dead. That’s my baby sister. I love her. I always loved her. I looked out for her and I feel let down. I feel I let her down.”
The killing sent waves of grief through the close-knit community of MTA workers.
Crystal Young, chairwomen of the Conductor/Tower Division of Transport Workers Union Local 100, said Dicks was looking forward to two days off when she finished her Monday shift.
“It’s tragic,” she said. “It’s unfortunate whenever we lose one of our co-workers.”
Local 100 Secretary-Treasurer Earl Phillips said the union would provide for Dicks’ children.
“We’re going to raise those six kids,” Phillips said. “That’s what we are here for.”
Dicks was posted at the Ditmars Blvd. station on the N line in Astoria, Queens.
Michelle Dicks urged investigators to track down the killer and give her family justice.
“They need jail time,” she said. “She was a mother, she was a grandmother, she was an aunt, a sister. There’s no reason for you just to walk up to some innocent, getting off of work, still have on their uniform and just shoot somebody like that.
“You just don’t do that.”