Retired NYPD Detective Held on $1 Million Bail in Fatal George Washington Bridge Shooting

A retired New York City police detective was ordered held on $1 million bail Thursday on a first-degree manslaughter charge in the fatal shooting of a driver on the George Washington Bridge, as relatives of the victim pressed for a murder charge.

Victor Romero, 62, is accused of killing Koran Irvine, 46, a Con Edison worker and father of two, on Tuesday evening. Romero was first arrested on a murder charge, which was reduced to manslaughter before his arraignment in Manhattan criminal court. Judge Kevin McGrath set bail at the amount prosecutors requested.

Assistant District Attorney Matt Sears called it "a particularly senseless killing" as he laid out the case. He said surveillance video showed Romero's car aggressively following Irvine's after a near-crash as the two approached the bridge from 179th Street around 7 p.m.

A police affidavit describes the same sequence. It says Irvine's blue Volkswagen Golf swerved into another lane on the westbound deck and nearly collided with a black Range Rover driven by Romero. The Range Rover then sped up and was seen "following the victim's vehicle closely," the affidavit says, unlike the greater distances other drivers kept.

Sears said Romero fired from the driver's seat. The bullet passed through the Golf's rear passenger door and struck Irvine behind his right shoulder, the affidavit says. Irvine's car slowed, veered right and stopped in traffic, while Romero's vehicle sped around it on the left and crossed the bridge into New Jersey without stopping. Irvine's car then "lurched across four lanes of traffic" and hit a center median, where first responders found that he had died.

Romero was taken into custody Wednesday. Prosecutors said detectives recovered a revolver from him that he admitted he carried every day, and found two more handguns at his home. All three are being examined for forensic evidence. The affidavit says the Range Rover was registered to a company for which Romero works as a driver.

Romero said nothing during the hearing. His lawyer, Alan Abramson, asked for lower bail, describing him as "a hero police officer" with a "sterling record" who was once struck during a shootout in which he kept others from being hurt. Abramson said Romero has a wife and four children and had recently worked as a security director. Romero retired from the NYPD as a detective in 2001.

Irvine's relatives filled part of the courtroom and spoke to reporters afterward. His family said he did not know Romero.

"My brother is a hero, and he's my hero," his sister, Zeria Irvine, said. "I talked to him every single day on that commute."

His aunt, Gale Forde, said the family was disappointed that Romero was not charged with murder. "Koran was on his way home from work, a hard day's work, and stayed overtime," she said. "Yet you had a retired police officer intentionally fire a bullet and kill him, and instead of it being murder, it's called manslaughter."

Keith White, a lawyer for the family, said the family had wanted Romero held without bail. "The judge granted that million dollars bail over our objection," White said. "After the degree of danger that he's shown after being the flight risk that he is, we think it's a travesty, a miscarriage of justice." He said the family had not been allowed to see the surveillance video described in the affidavit, and that relatives are looking into a lawsuit against Romero and the security company they believe employed him.

Con Edison confirmed that Irvine was off duty when he was shot and said its employees were "heartbroken" over what it called a "senseless act of violence." An online fundraiser for his widow and two children had raised more than $175,000 by Thursday.

The Manhattan District Attorney's Office plans to present the case to a grand jury, which will decide whether to indict Romero and on what charge.