The 26-year-old man gunned down on a Midtown Manhattan subway platform has been remembered by his grieving family as a dedicated gym enthusiast and a devoted son who was deeply committed to his ailing father.
Darrel Rodriguez was fatally shot in the chest at the 53rd Street and Seventh Avenue subway station at approximately 12:20 p.m. on Saturday, October 17, 2026. According to his aunt, Ana Pichardo, Rodriguez’s life centered around his work and physical fitness. He lived in the Bronx with his father, Tony, who suffered a stroke and struggles to speak, and picked up shifts as a security guard whenever he could.
“He was mainly with his father. He was crazy about his father,” Pichardo said during an interview at the apartment the father and son shared. She added with a touch of family humor that Rodriguez even grew protective of his father when he got a girlfriend.
In addition to working security at a Manhattan building, Rodriguez maintained a focus on fitness, recently setting up a home gym in his bedroom a few months prior with a weight bar. His father noted that his son also enjoyed playing rock and roll music on his guitar and singing.
Investigators report that Rodriguez was shot by a masked gunman wearing a red tracksuit, a black vest, and a facial covering who fled the scene after opening fire on the northbound E train platform. Law enforcement sources stated that the two men engaged in an argument on the platform before the shooting occurred, though what sparked the dispute remains unclear. Police are actively working to identify the suspect, though the investigation faces hurdles due to a lack of platform surveillance video and the fact that the gunman’s face was covered. No arrests had been made as of Tuesday night.
Pichardo stated that her family did not recognize the suspect and noted that her nephew generally spent little time socializing with friends. A longtime neighbor, 46-year-old Maddy, who watched Rodriguez grow up since he was a baby, described him as a quiet, decent young man who avoided trouble, expressing certainty that the killer must have been a stranger.
Inside his Bronx home, a handwritten note clipped to a black clipboard offered a glimpse into Rodriguez’s personal reflections. “I had a hard path, I had no one,” he wrote. “What is stopping you is you. Your ineffectiveness to show up for yourself. Always show up for yourself.”
At the bottom of the same note, Rodriguez had jotted down a career aspiration: “Need to find a new job.”
