Man, woman dead after casino shooting, then police-involved incident in East New York

QUEENS, N.Y. (WABC) -- One man is dead after a police-involved shooting related to a separate fatal shooting at a Queens casino earlier Tuesday morning.

Police shot a man in a white vehicle at Stanley and Pennsylvania avenues in East New York around 6 a.m. The man, who police identified as Dalton Branch, 51, was taken to Brookdale University Hospital, where he was pronounced dead.

Branch is suspected of fatally shooting 55-year-old Patsy Mohammed in the parking lot of the Resorts World Casino in South Ozone Park, Queens, just after 2:20 a.m. Tuesday. She was pronounced dead at Jamaica Hospital.

The suspect fled in a white vehicle, initially described as a Dodge Durango.

Another man who was with Mohammed, also 51, was shot at by the suspect.

In the hours that followed, Branch made a series of phone calls and sent text messages, taunting the survivor of the shooting, relatives of his ex-girlfriend and even a 911 operator, calling himself "the grim reaper."

Police said they were able to identify Branch through the text messages and tracked his vehicle. When they approached his vehicle to arrest Branch, they were fired upon. Three officers fired back, hitting him multiple times. The officers were uninjured.

"They rolled-up on this vehicle to make an apprehension and were immediately fired upon by this individual," NYPD Chief of Detectives Robert Boyce said.

A .380 caliber semi-automatic firearm and additional ammunition were recovered at the scene. Branch has five prior arrests, including for robbery, assault and some weapons charges.

Resorts World Casino released the following statement:

"Resorts World is heartbroken by the tragedy that occurred earlier this morning in the casino's parking lot. Our thoughts and prayers go out to the victim's family. We are fully cooperating with the NYPD in the investigation into this incident."

Authorities say Mohammed was not an employee of Resorts World and was in the parking lot to meet her friend, who is a supervisor for Trans Express Inc., of Brooklyn, a third party that runs shuttles to the casino.

Branch is a former driver for Trans Express Inc.

None of these people were in the casino at before the shooting.

The victim's aunt, Rosemarie Guilford, tells Eyewitness News that the family had warned Mohammed about the suspect, but that "he had a power over her." She says they previously dated, but that Mohammed broke it off last year. She could not say whether there was a new relationship with the other man, but she said that "they were all friends."