The New Yorker gunned down on a Midtown subway platform can be seen for the first time in a heartbreaking picture, beaming as he poses with his siblings.
The photo shows a smiling Darell Rodriguez, 26, wearing a white T-shirt and a Yankees cap, standing with his twin Derick and their brother Gabriel.
“It’s like a black hole in your heart,” Derick Rodriguez told The New York Times about the loss of his twin.
“It is grief, but it is something deeper because this is your half,” he said.
Darell Rodriguez was shot in the chest Saturday afternoon at the 53rd Street/7th Avenue subway station in Midtown Manhattan by a masked assailant — who ran off after and hasn’t yet been caught.
Derick Rodriguez, who lives in Waco, Texas, said he feared the worst when a text he sent his sibling on Sunday morning didn’t seem to go through.
“In my mind, I was like, something’s coming, but I don’t know when,” Rodriguez, who grew up in University Heights in The Bronx with his brother before leaving to join the Army in 2021, told the Times.
After hours without a reply, he began calling police precincts after his father told him Darell hadn’t come home the night before.
He then called his mother, at which point an NYPD detective who was with her got on the phone to explain that his twin brother had died in an altercation on the subway.
Darell had been working as a security guard in Manhattan on the day he was shot, according to his family.
Police said he and the shooter had a dispute on the train platform, though details remained unclear.
The NYPD released pictures of his suspected killer, wearing a red hoodie and black face mask, as they continue to hunt him down.
This is a developing story. Please check back for updates.
