Police kill man who shot ex-girlfriend in NYC

NEW YORK - A rampaging gunman who found his ex-girlfriend outside a casino with another man shot her to death early Tuesday before police tracked him down and killed him in a gunfight.

In between the casino slaying and his own death, 51-year-old Dalton Branch called to tell the aunt of his ex that it was time for a burial, her family and police said. And in a text to the other man, he called himself the "Grim Reaper."

The deadly sequence began shortly after 2 a.m. when Branch rolled up in a Dodge Charger and confronted Patricia Mohammed and the other man as they stood outside the Resorts World Casino in Queens, police said.

Branch, who once worked for a bus company that contracted with the casino, first fired at the 51-year-old man, who escaped, police said. He then shot the 55-year-old Mohammed multiple times as she tried to take cover in a car, they said.

It was unclear if Mohammed and the other man, who both worked at the bus company, were targeted by Branch because they were involved romantically. Mohammed's aunt, Rose Marie Guilford, said her niece had broken up with Branch about a year ago after a rocky relationship, and she described the other man as a friend.

After fleeing in the Charger, Branch twice called the aunt, who shared a home with Mohammed, she said.

"He told me I should prepare myself to bury my niece," she said. "He called me back and said, 'I gave it to her good.' "

About 6 a.m., police tracking Branch's cellphone activity located him in his car about five miles away in a parking lot in Brooklyn. He was approached by three plainclothes officers in an unmarked van.

"As they pulled up, they were immediately fired upon by this individual," Boyce said. All three officers returned fire. The suspect was pronounced dead at a hospital.