3 suspects caught, charged in murder of man on bronx subway

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

  

 

Three people have been arrested and charged in connection with the fatal shooting of a man on a Bronx subway train, according to the NYPD.

William Alvarez, 45, was killed early Friday morning aboard a southbound D train in the Fordham Heights section of the Bronx. The incident occurred shortly after 5 a.m. as the train approached the 182nd–183rd Streets station.

Police say one of the suspects sat down next to Alvarez and began a verbal argument. The confrontation quickly turned physical, and two other people joined in. During the fight, a gun was fired, fatally wounding Alvarez. When the train pulled into the station, the three suspects fled.

Alvarez was taken to St. Barnabas Hospital, where he was pronounced dead.

On the following Monday, shortly before noon, officers arrested Justin Herde, 24, Betty Cotto, 38, and Alfredo Trinidad, 42, at an apartment in the Bronx. The three face charges including murder, manslaughter, and criminal possession of a weapon.

Subway shootings remain among the most disruptive forms of transit violence because they occur in confined spaces with limited escape routes for other passengers. When a verbal dispute escalates to gunfire inside a moving train, the risk extends beyond the immediate parties to everyone else in the car.

The relatively quick arrests — within a few days of the shooting — suggest that investigators were able to gather useful evidence, whether through surveillance, witness statements, or other leads. For the family of William Alvarez, the charges represent a step toward accountability, even as the legal process continues.

Cases like this also renew attention on the presence of firearms in the transit system and on how quickly ordinary interactions can turn deadly. As the three defendants move through the court system, the focus remains on the evidence connecting them to the shooting that ended Alvarez’s life on a Bronx subway train in the early morning hours.