On this day, May 21, in 1988, U.S. District Judge Richard Daronco was shot and killed by Charles Koster, a retired New York City police officer angry over the judge’s decision in a sexual discrimination lawsuit filed by his daughter.
Daronco, 56, was gardening at his home in Pelham, N.Y., when 67-year-old Koster shot him with a revolver. The judge staggered into his house, collapsed and died. Koster followed him inside and then shot himself to death.
Koster was seeking revenge for the judge’s dismissal of a $2.5 million lawsuit filed by his daughter against her former supervisor at Chase Manhattan Bank.
The Westchester County building in White Plains, where Daronco was a state judge for 17 years, is now named after Daronco.
