Man Shoots, Kills 1 of 3 Robbers on N.Y. Subway, Flees at Station

A man who was robbed on a subway train shot and killed one of the three men who accosted him, then fled at the next station, police said Friday.

The robbery was committed by three men in their teens or early 20s who were among a group of about 18 people traveling together late Thursday, Transit Authority police spokesman Al O’Leary said.

The shooting bore certain similarities to the Bernhard H. Goetz case of six years ago, in which Goetz shot four youths he said were about to mug him. Like the Goetz case, the unidentified robbery victim was white and his assailants were black.

However, O’Leary cautioned against making comparisons. “The major difference is, Goetz believed he was going to become a crime victim, and in cases since, the people who reacted had already been victimized. Very different situations in the eyes of the law,” he said.

O’Leary also said police were not treating the shooting as racially motivated.

The robbers, armed with a retractable razor used for opening boxes, approached the man, “grabbed him, lifted him up, went through his pockets, took his wallet and threw him back on the seat,” O’Leary said. “He pulled a gun and fired three times.”

One bullet hit one of the robbers in the chest, the spokesman said. It was uncertain where the other bullets went. The man who was shot was identified by the medical examiner’s office as Ricky Pickett, 25, of Brooklyn. He had been arrested five times for robbery, said police sources, who spoke on condition of anonymity.

When the train made its next stop, the shooter, believed to be in his late 40s or early 50s, got out, as did many of the young men traveling together, but it was not known whether they were fleeing or chasing the man, he said.

O’Leary said earlier reports that the robbers had a gun were incorrect. Although a gun had been passed around openly among the group, he said, the three robbers used the razor, not the gun.