A New York City teenager allegedly shot a hotel security guard dead inside a subway station after a heated clash over smoking marijuana, investigators have revealed.

Xavian Collins, 17, is accused of shooting Darrel Rodriguez, 26, once in the chest at the Seventh Avenue and West 53rd Street subway station in Midtown on Saturday afternoon, according to police.

The deadly encounter is believed to have stemmed from Rodriguez confronting the teen over smoking marijuana inside the train car, WABC News reported.

As the argument spilled onto the platform, Collins allegedly pulled a gun and shot Rodriguez point-blank in the chest, leaving him bleeding on the ground.

Prosecutors said the alleged killer then ‘threw on a mask and put his hood up to conceal his ID,’ before fleeing the station and sprinting up Seventh Avenue ahead of police.

In chilling footage taken moments after the shooting, Rodriguez appeared unresponsive as a group of New Yorkers gathered around his body, seemingly at a loss over what to do.

Just feet away, subway riders crouched down and huddled together inside, visibly terrified.

Rodriguez was rushed to the hospital in critical condition by emergency medical responders but was pronounced dead a short time later.

‘It’s a black hole in your heart,’ Rodriguez’s fraternal twin, Derick Rodriguez, told The New York Times. The pair grew up together in the Bronx before Derick moved to Texas in 2021 to join the Army.

‘It is grief, but it is something deeper because this is your half,’ he added.

Meanwhile, the days-long manhunt came to an end Thursday afternoon when Collins turned himself in to authorities alongside his attorney and family, sources told PIX11 News.

He was charged with murder, criminal possession of a weapon and criminal possession of a loaded firearm, and appeared in Manhattan Supreme Court for his arraignment later that afternoon.

His attorney, Michael Horn, pushed back against the prosecution’s case, arguing there was no evidence to suggest his client was responsible for Rodriguez’s death. He added that the teen lives with his mother in a Queens homeless shelter.

He also told the Times he had not personally seen or heard any evidence proving Collins was the shooter, adding: ‘I think that Xavian will be exonerated from this.’

The judge, however, rejected the defense’s arguments and ordered Collins, who is being tried as an adult, to remain behind bars without bail.

‘The allegations include the fact that he shot an individual in broad daylight in the New York City transit system at point-blank range, which led to this person’s death,’ Judge Rachel Pauley said, according to the New York Post.

Pauley’s ruling came five days after the shooting, which unfolded shortly after noon on Saturday when Rodriguez encountered Collins, who was wearing a black mask, on the northbound E train platform.

While it remains unclear where Rodriguez was headed that day, he worked as a security guard at a hotel in Midtown, close to the Seventh Avenue and 53rd Street subway station.

The two men, who did not know each other, allegedly began arguing when Rodriguez told him to stop smoking weed inside the packed subway car, investigators told WABC.

The confrontation moved between the train and the platform before ending in deadly gunfire.

‘We had just gotten in there and we were sitting down. All of a sudden, I heard a shot… there was mass exodus,’ one rider told NBC 4 New York, recalling the terrifying moments after the gunfire.

‘Everyone started running out, and there was at least three more,’ they added.

Christopher Myron, another commuter, told PIX11 News: ‘We started running and all the other people started following suit.’

‘Honestly, before that I thought it was fairly safe,’ he added. ‘After that, to be honest, I’m a little nervous to get on the subway right now.’

Disturbing footage shared to X showed emergency responders carrying Rodriguez up the subway stairs on a stretcher, while a separate clip captured them performing CPR as they rushed him towards a waiting ambulance.

Other videos showed police cordoning off the station with crime scene tape, where investigators later found a shell casing from a 9mm gun inside the car where the deadly fight broke out.

Rodriguez, whom sources described to The Post as a ‘beautiful kid,’ lived in the Bronx and cared for his ailing father. He was taken to Bellevue Hospital, where he later succumbed to his injuries.

‘He’s a nice kid, bro. I don’t know why they did that to him,’ one childhood friend told PIX11 News, fighting back tears as he asked not to be identified.

‘I knew him when he was a young boy. His father used to own the barber shop. I miss him,’ he added.

Devante Hall, another childhood friend, said: ‘I wouldn’t think it would be somebody I know and when I seen it on the news, I didn’t think it would be right here.’

Mayor Zohran Mamdani addressed the shooting during a Monday news conference, saying: ‘Every single New Yorker deserves to be safe on every single train, on every single subway platform, no matter where they’re going across our five boroughs.’

‘And we know that we’ve made strides in making our subways safer, and we also know that this shooting serves as an incredibly painful reminder of all that still has to be done to root out the scourge of gun violence from across our city,’ he added.

Meanwhile, MTA Chair and CEO Janno Lieber praised the arrest of Collins.

‘Once again the NYPD has demonstrated why they are the finest detectives anywhere, and now it’s up to prosecutors and the courts to ensure maximum justice for the late Darrel Rodriguez,’ he said.

The killing marked the seventh homicide in New York City’s subway system this year, up from four at the same point last year.