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Man Questioned in Killing of Reputed Gambino Mob Boss on Staten Island, Police Say Staten Island Man Expected to Be Charged in Killing of Gambino Mob Boss, Police Say
(about 4 hours later)
The police on Saturday were questioning a Staten Island man in connection with the fatal shooting of the reputed boss of the Gambino crime family, a law enforcement official said. [What you need to know to start the day: Get New York Today in your inbox.]
Several officials said preliminary information suggested that the killing was not related to organized crime but one cautioned that the inquiry was still in its early stages. The unidentified man, 24, had not been charged, the Police Department said in a statement on Saturday. The police took a 24-year-old Staten Island man into custody in connection with the fatal shooting of the reputed boss of the Gambino crime family and expected to charge him with murder, officials said on Saturday.
The official, who spoke on the condition of anonymity because he was not authorized to speak publicly about the case, said the man, was taken into custody on Saturday morning in New Jersey and was being questioned by the authorities. The official earlier had given the man’s age as 25. The motive for the killing was unclear, Dermot F. Shea, the Police Department’s chief of detectives, said at a news conference on Saturday.
Francesco Cali, the reputed boss of the Gambino crime family, was fatally shot outside his home on Staten Island on Wednesday night. “Was he acting alone?” he said. “Was he acting for other people? What was the motive? I simply, standing here in front of you, do not have all the answers.”
Officials said the unidentified man gave conflicting statements and detectives were investigating whether he had been dating Mr. Cali’s daughter and had been instructed to stop seeing her. However, public records showed that Mr. Cali has three sons. A criminal court filing in 2008 identified each of his children by name and age but made no mention of a daughter. He identified the man as Anthony Comello, and multiple sources said he was taken into custody in Brick Township, N.J., on Saturday morning. He was being held in the Ocean County Jail at the request of the New York Police Department, according to a jail official.
Mr. Cali, 53, was shot six times. The police said they received a report about the shooting outside 25 Hilltop Terrace in the Todt Hill section of Staten Island around 9:20 p.m. Several officials said preliminary information suggested that the killing of the reputed boss, Francesco Cali, who was shot outside his home on Staten Island on Wednesday night, was not related to organized crime. However, one official cautioned that the inquiry was still in its early stages.
The gunman first struck Mr. Cali’s car, and then went to the front door of his home and rang the door bell. An image of his face was captured by a surveillance camera, another law enforcement official said. After initially speaking with detectives on Saturday morning, Mr. Comello retained a lawyer and has not given a statement since.
“We expect him to be charged with the murder of Francesco Cali,” Chief Shea said.
Two law enforcement officials said that Mr. Comello had no criminal history but had nonetheless come to the attention of law enforcement before.
Sometime in recent years, his strange behavior in a federal courthouse was such that the United States Marshals Service briefly took him into custody and asked the New York Police Department’s Intelligence Division to check its records to determine if he had any history of terroristic threats. Neither of the officials had any details about the specific nature of his behavior, but both said no such history could be found.
Fingerprints were recovered from Mr. Cali’s vehicle but the police would not confirm that the forensic evidence pointed toward Mr. Comello. The police said they have not recovered a weapon.
Mr. Cali, 53, was shot 10 times, the chief said. The police said they received a report about the shooting outside 25 Hilltop Terrace in the Todt Hill section of Staten Island around 9:20 p.m.
Around 9:17 p.m., a pickup truck driven by Comello backed into Mr. Cali’s parked Cadillac Escalade, damaging it. He then walked up to the door of Mr. Cali’s house and rang the bell, where law enforcement sources said his face was caught on video.
Mr. Cali and Mr. Comello spoke for roughly a minute, in a conversation also recorded by surveillance cameras and reviewed by investigators. The footage showed Mr. Comello, dressed in a hooded sweatshirt and a baseball cap, bend down and pick up a license plate that fell off the Escalade.
Mr. Cali took the license plate and walked back to his car, where he placed in it the rear. At that moment, the gunman pulled out a 9 millimeter pistol and fired 12 times, officials said.
The truck Mr. Comello drove was recovered on Saturday morning in New Jersey. The handgun used to kill Mr. Cali has not been found.