Qns. slay arrest
Off-duty Rikers guard was killed at red light
Police nabbed the man they believe shot an off-duty city correction officer to death as he sat in his car in Queens.
Gifford Hunter, 30, of Queens, was nabbed about noon Sunday and charged with killing Jonathan Narain.
Narain, 27, was on his way to work at the Anna M. Kross jail on Rikers Island on Friday when Hunter pulled up next to him on a motorcycle at a red light on 103rd Ave. and 120th St. in Richmond Hill about 1:45 a.m.
Moments before, Narain had made a U-turn to get food at a nearby store and had a brief encounter with Hunter.
The two exchanged more words at the traffic light, then Hunter fired, striking Narain in the left temple, cops said.
A city medic, responding to an unrelated shooting nearby, found Narain slumped over the steering wheel of his red Honda Accord. Medics rushed the offduty correction officer to Jamaica Hospital, where he died.
Narain had been working at the Kross Center since January 2016, officials said. He was the middle son of three boys. His older brother, Jason, is a city firefighter. His younger brother, Jeremy, is a student.
Hunter was charged with murder, weapons possession and criminal use of a firearm, cops said.
He didn’t say a word as he was escorted out of the 107th Precinct stationhouse Sunday afternoon wearing a black hoodie with an MTA logo and gray sweatpants.
“We want to say thank you to the NYPD because we knew they were going to do it,” said Corrections Officers’ Benevolent Association president Elias Husamudeen, who was at the stationhouse with several correction officers. “I mean this is what they do. I am happy that they got him, and hopefully he is punished and penalized to the fullest extent of the law."
“We had the vigil the other night. And (the family is) doing, under the circumstances, the best they can. The mother, she’s still taking it hard. He’s 27 years old. And hopefully time will help her,” he added.
Police sources say Hunter works for the MTA as a bus maintenance worker in the Bronx. He’s had six previous contacts with police, all of which are sealed, authorities said.