NEW YORK (AP) — A motorist was shot and killed in a road rage incident on the George Washington Bridge near the end of the Tuesday evening rush, police said, snarling traffic for hours on the busy span that connects New York City and New Jersey.
Koran Irvine, 46, of Valley Cottage, New York, was pronounced dead at a hospital.
A former New York City police detective who retired in 2001 was taken into custody as a person of interest in the killing, the NYPD said. The retired detective’s name was not made public.
Authorities said they found Irvine wounded and unconscious in the driver’s seat of a vehicle on the New Jersey-bound side of the bridge’s upper level just after 7 p.m. Tuesday.
Irvine worked for Con Edison, the utility said in a statement, calling the shooting a “senseless act of violence."
“Our deepest condolences go out to his family, friends, colleagues, and everyone who knew and loved him,” the company said.
Closed bridge lanes reopened about five hours after the shooting, the span’s operator, the Port Authority of New York and New Jersey, said.
Opened to traffic in 1931, the iconic, double-decked bridge carries around 100 million vehicles across the Hudson River between Fort Lee, New Jersey, and Manhattan each year, according to the Port Authority, which calls it the world's busiest. The bridge and its entrances are teeming with cameras.
Its entrances can be difficult to navigate, as drivers often veer across packed lanes, causing heavy traffic even under normal circumstances.
