New York suburbs rocked by arrest of retired NYPD detective accused of road rage murder

The arrest of a retired NYPD detective in the fatal drive-by shooting of a father of two on the George Washington Bridge shocked his neighbors, who considered him a “great person” who “cared about the community.”

Victor Romero, 62, who allegedly fatally shot Koran Irvine, 46, on a busy crossing Tuesday night, retired from New York’s Finest 25 years ago after being shot while off-duty in 2000.

The retired police officer, also a married father, lived in a quiet townhouse community in Haverstraw, Rockland County, where everyone who spoke to the Post described him as a near-perfect neighbor.

“I was so surprised when I heard that. I thought this can’t be true. I said, ‘No, you’re confused, it’s not him,'” Paola Ventura, 26, said of the shocking news of her arrest.

“I saw him on Monday and we talked about my dog. I had a problem with my car and he helped me. One day my dog ​​ran out of the house and he helped me get him. I’m really in shock,” she added.

Community Council President Ann Tartaglione said Romero lived with his wife and daughter who is in college and also had a son who did not live with them. She said he “wanted to help the community” and even invested his own money in a recent tree felling project.

“He cared about the community,” Tartaglione said. “I’m shocked. I’m really shocked. I feel bad for the family, both families.”

Another neighbor, Luis Polanco, said Romero was “never aggressive.”

“If he could do anything for you, he would. I was in a car accident and he helped me with the paperwork and what I needed to do. He’s so friendly. I saw him Monday afternoon,” he said in Spanish through a translator.

“I’ve never seen him angry. He’s a great person,” added local Juan Duran.

Koran Irvine, 46, was returning home from an overtime shift with Con-Edison when Romero allegedly fired a single shot in a fit of rage that hit him in the right shoulder around 7:15 p.m. on the upper level of the New Jersey-bound railroad crossing, according to cops and his family.

Irvine was rushed to Englewood Hospital where he was later pronounced dead.

Romero admitted to investigators to being the shooter and turned the gun over to police, sources told The Post.

Romero had worked at Brooklyn North Narcotics before retiring in late July 2001 — following an off-duty shooting about a year earlier at his family’s dry cleaning business, King’s Laundromat on Kings Highway in East Flatbush, law enforcement sources said.