MTA killer hid in another woman’s house
AFTER KILLING his ex-girlfriend in Brooklyn, fugitive murder suspect Zire King sought refuge at another woman’s home more than 30 miles away in New Jersey, police sources said Saturday.
King, 44, who was being hunted for fatally shooting MTA employee Jacqueline Dicks, had been staying at the woman’s home — believed to be a former girlfriend — for at least a day before he took his own life during a five-hour standoff with police Friday afternoon, officials said.
Dicks’ family didn’t know about the woman King spent his last hours with.
“I have no knowledge of that lady,” the subway conductor’s daughter Tatiana Dicks, 24, said Saturday.
A three-day manhunt for King ended about 7 p.m. on Friday when police found the killer’s body in a bedroom closet inside the Hackensack, N.J., home, officials said.
Cops are investigating how King died. No shots were fired, police said.
“He had some foam on his mouth like he had puked,” one police source said. “It looked like evidence of poisoning.”
Cops were told about 1:20 p.m. on Friday that King was staying with a woman on First St. near Passaic St., officials said. As they scoped out the home, they spotted King’s friend leaving the address, police sources said.
They confronted the woman and learned that King was inside and possibly armed.
The confrontation ended when police shot gas canisters through the windows and stormed the address, finding King dead.
The Bergen County medical examiner will perform an autopsy to determine how King died, officials said.
Tatiana Dicks said her family was relieved King was dead.
“My family has been scared for their lives,” she said. “We don’t know what he’s capable of. We don’t know if he’s going to come back. We were scared. But not anymore.”
Her family first learned through television news that King had died, but detectives confirmed the facts during a visit to their Brooklyn home Friday night.
King had been on the run since Tuesday, after he was questioned about the murder of the 41-yearold mother of six, then released.
Dicks was fatally shot on Monday night after King picked her up from work and brought her back to her East New York home.
King emerged as the prime suspect when video recovered at the scene contradicted claims that three men in hoodies were responsible for his girlfriend’s death. The murder weapon, a .40-caliber handgun, was found in King’s car.
The two had a 4-year-old child together.
Relatives believe King killed Dicks because she was breaking up with him.
“It’s a ‘Fatal Attraction’ story,” her daughter said. “If he couldn’t have her, nobody else could.”
Cops had been actively looking for King since Tuesday — and believed he was in the five boroughs until Thursday.
“We missed him at a location in the city on Thursday,” said a source with knowledge of the case. “He had probably been in New Jersey for less than a day.”