The victim of a brazen subway slaying in Manhattan was locked in a stare down with two other men before one gunned him down in front of panicked passengers, witnesses told police.
Investigators on Wednesday were still searching for the unidentified men. Though the motive of the shooting was unclear, police speculated that it may have stemmed from an earlier dispute involving the victim, Stanford Nelson, who had an extensive criminal record.
The shooting occurred at about 9 p.m. Tuesday after Nelson boarded a northbound No. 1 train at the 18th Street station in Chelsea. The suspects entered the same car at the opposite end.
Witnesses told police that, without speaking, Nelson and the men stared each other down. When the half-full train stopped at the next stop on 23rd Street, up to four shots rang out, making passengers scream and hit the floor for cover.
Nelson fell face down on the floor of the subway car after being hit by gunfire in the face and torso. He was taken to St. Vincent's Hospital, where he died.
The two men, both in their 20s, fled out of the train immediately after the shooting and were seen running south on Seventh Avenue, police said. One was described as a bald man wearing a backpack and a white T-shirt with blue lettering, the other 6-feet tall and wearing blue jeans and a Los Angeles Lakers basketball jersey.
The victim was released from state prison in 2000 after serving three years for a second-degree attempted murder conviction. He also had prior arrests on drug and gun charges, police said.
Two other people have been shot on subway trains in the past month, neither fatally.
David Hart, the former CEO of Drake Business School, was shot in May as he walked through a subway turnstile in Queens. Model-actress Monica Meadows was shot in the shoulder on a subway train in Times Square earlier this month.
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