Darrel Rodriguez, the 26-year-old man fatally shot on a Midtown subway platform, was remembered by loved ones as a devoted son, a hardworking security guard and a passionate fitness enthusiast.
Rodriguez was struck in the chest at the 53rd Street/7th Avenue station at about 12:20 p.m. Saturday. His aunt, Ana Pichardo, said his life largely revolved around his job and his workouts.
The 61-year-old aunt said Rodriguez picked up security shifts whenever possible and shared a Bronx home with his father, Tony, who had suffered a stroke and has difficulty speaking.
“He was mainly with his father. He was crazy about his father,” Pichardo told The Post while speaking from the father and son’s apartment.
“He even got jealous when his father got a girlfriend. They’re very close,” the grieving aunt added.
Just months before his death, Rodriguez created a small home gym in his bedroom, complete with a weight bar, his father said in Spanish. Pichardo translated his comments.
“Heavy weights, right?” Tony joked. He also recalled that his son loved singing and playing rock ’n’ roll on the guitar.
Police said the gunman wore a red tracksuit, black vest and face covering before opening fire and fleeing. Rodriguez was left critically wounded on the northbound E train platform and later died.
According to sources, Rodriguez and the shooter exchanged words on the platform before the gunman pulled out a weapon. Investigators had not determined what triggered the confrontation.
Detectives were trying to identify the suspect, but the investigation was complicated by the lack of platform surveillance video and the fact that the shooter concealed his face, sources said.
No arrests had been reported as of Tuesday night.
Pichardo said the family did not recognize the suspected gunman and had never seen him before. She described Rodriguez as someone who kept a small social circle and had little time for friendships.
“I think he was waiting for somebody. Chasing somebody,” Pichardo speculated about the shooter.
A longtime neighbor known as Maddy, who had watched Rodriguez grow up, remembered him as “a quiet, decent young man” who “didn’t look for problems with nobody.”
The 46-year-old neighbor said the killer “had to be a stranger,” adding that “everybody on the block loves him.”
Inside the Bronx apartment, Rodriguez’s private reflections were found handwritten on a sheet of paper clipped to a black clipboard. The note began: “I had a hard path, I had no one.”
Rodriguez continued: “What is stopping you is you. Your ineffectiveness to show up for yourself. Always show up for yourself.”
“Also, that’s the last person to show up for. Show up for yourself. The best person to show up for. Always show up for yourself,” he wrote.
Sources said Rodriguez worked the front desk at a Manhattan building as a security guard, although the precise location was not immediately known. At the bottom of his note, he had written: “Need to find a new job.”
