STATEN ISLAND, N.Y. -- A barroom argument about his sexuality may have set off the former Pleasant Plains who was killed in a shootout with police in Queens Wednesday, the Daily News reports.
Jonathan Efraim, 30, who had a long criminal history on Staten Island, got into an argument with a 72-year-old customer at the SBS Hillside Inn in Jamaica after the man said something about his sexual orientation, according to a Daily News report.
When the bartender tried to diffuse the situation by telling the regular customer that a cab was waiting for him outside, Efraim yelled, "No one's going anywhere!" before firing a shot into the ceiling and running outside, Stephen Davis, the NYPD's Deputy Commissioner for Public Information, told the Associated Press.
Police caught up to Efraim on 168th Street, between Hillside and Highland Avenue.
Officers shouted for him to stop, but he continued running, then stopped, turned and fired at the two pursuing cops, police said.
When he turned and pointed his 9 mm handgun at the cops a second time, they opened fire, according to police. Efraim was hit in the chest and armpit, and was pronounced dead at Jamaica Hospital, police said.
Efraim, who served in the Marines from 2004 to 2007 before receiving a bad conduct discharge, had 16 past arrests, most of which occurred on Staten Island and in New Jersey, law enforcement sources said.
He had been working as a dispatcher for a tow truck company at the time of his death, the New York Times reported.