Police: Boyfriend Wanted For Questioning In Death Of MTA Conductor Found Dead Following Standoff
HACKENSACK, N.J. (CBSNewYork) -- The boyfriend of an MTA conductor found shot to death in the street near her Brooklyn home earlier this week died Friday night following a standoff in Hackensack, New Jersey.
Police said they were searching for 44-year-old Zire King at 388 First Street around 1:20 p.m., when a woman told officers that King was inside the home and possibly armed. The woman said he was barricaded inside a closet in a bedroom on the second floor.
The Bergen County Regional SWAT team set up a perimeter and tried to contact King, police said. After two and a half hours and still no response, they deployed gas. An hour later, they entered the house.
Police said they found King dead inside the closet.
It's unclear how he died. An autopsy is pending.
King was wanted for questioning in connection with the death of his girlfriend, 41-year-old Jacqueline Dicks, an MTA conductor and mother of six, police said.
She was shot and killed Monday night on Elton Street in East New York while she on her way home from work at a nearby subway depot.
King told police he dropped her off after work and then got out of his car and went to the store. But Chief of Detectives Robert Boyce said his story didn't line up.
"We have them engaging in a conversation, we also have them going back to his car directly after. We did a search warrant on that car and we found a .40 caliber handgun in the trunk of the car. We believe that to be the murder weapon," Boyce said. "We also found that he picked up her bag with the phone in it and also put in the trunk."
Boyce said the couple had been together for five years, had a child together and recently bought a home.
