Suspect in murder of MTA worker dead after standoff with cops

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Zire King (NYPD)

The search for the suspect in the murder of an MTA worker is over. The man, Zire King, was found dead inside a home in Hackensack, New Jersey, after a long standoff with police Friday, authorities said.

The NYPD said King shot and killed MTA conductor Jacqueline Dicks, his girlfriend, just blocks from her home in East New York late Monday night. Police spoke to him after the shooting but had nothing to hold him on and had to release him.

But after security camera video from the crime scene contradicted King's statement, he became the prime suspect, NYPD Chief of Detectives Robert Boyce said. By then, King had taken off.

On Friday, cops got a tip that King was holed up in New Jersey. NYPD and Hackensack Police detectives went to a home on First Street in Hackensack, where a woman told them King was barricaded in a closet in a bedroom on the second floor. The detectives called for backup.

The Bergen County Regional SWAT team responded. Negotiators tried to make contact with King but he didn't respond, officials said. At 5:45 p.m., SWAT deployed gas into the room.

Officers waited an hour and then entered the house. They found Zire dead inside a closet on the second floor, authorities said.

The Bergen County medical examiner will do an autopsy to determine how he died.