Jonathan Narain, a 27-year-old male off-duty corrections officer, was shot and killed in a road rage incident in Queens, New York, on September 14, 2018. Narain was on his way to work at Rikers Island shortly before 2 a.m. when the fatal encounter occurred. He had stopped to buy food before engaging in a verbal dispute with a motorcyclist.
The argument escalated at a red light at the intersection of 103rd Avenue and 120th Street in the Richmond Hill neighborhood.
The motorcyclist, later identified as 30-year-old Gifford Hunter, pulled up alongside Narain's red Honda Accord and fired a single shot, striking Narain in the head before speeding away. A city medic who was responding to another incident nearby discovered Narain slumped over the steering wheel of his car. He was rushed to Jamaica Hospital, where he was pronounced dead.
An investigation by the New York Police Department led to the arrest of Gifford Hunter, an MTA bus maintenance worker from St. Albans, just two days after the shooting. Surveillance video from the area was instrumental in identifying Hunter as the suspect. He was charged with murder, weapons possession, and criminal use of a firearm.
Initially, Hunter's defense attorney claimed that the police had arrested the wrong person, stating that Hunter had no criminal record and did not own a gun. However, in December 2019, Gifford Hunter pleaded guilty to first-degree manslaughter. In February 2020, a Queens Supreme Court justice sentenced him to 23 years in prison, to be followed by five years of post-release supervision. Following his death, the corner of 111th Street and 107th Avenue in South Richmond Hill was co-named 'Correction Officer Jonathan Narain Way' in his honor.
