Friend tells of heartache over murder

When Tony Royo ran out of his office to find his close friend motionless with a gunshot wound to the chest, he couldn’t believe it was real.

The friend, businessman Philip Antonino, 57, of Hollywood, ran Phil and Lou‘s Muffler Exchange in West Park with his brother. He died Friday morning when investigators say he intervened with a homeless man who was mowing grass and being “berated” by another man.

“It was heart-wrenching, seeing him there, said Royo,” president of Shoreline Foundation Inc., a marine construction business next door to the auto shop. “It’s just so senseless.”

The Broward Sheriff ’s Office said Tuesday that investigators had no further information to release about the fatal shooting. No arrests have been announced in the killing.

Royo said he grew close to Antonino after working beside him for years near the corner of Southwest 56th Avenue and Hallandale Beach Boulevard. Both were avid motorcyclists, going to rallies together and seeing each other most days.

“They don’t make guys like that. He came from Italy, had nothing, worked really hard and had a family,” Royo said. “He was a lot of fun to be around.”

But their friendship came to an abrupt end at about 9 a.m. Friday when a colleague of Royo ran into into his office saying Antonino had been shot.

Outside on the sidewalk, he found his friend on the ground.

When Royo learned Antonino had been shot defending the homeless man, he was upset his friend died over something so trivial. But he wasn’t surprised Antonino was trying to help.

“It really hit me Friday night. I was saddened to the bone and angered that this guy is still out there,” Royo said. “To be walking around at 9 a.m. with a gun to just harass people seems mindboggling.”

Ben Mostkoff, a member of the business development team at Shoreline Foundation Inc., was at a meeting when he got a phone call about the shooting.

“There wasn’t a dry eye in this office,” Mostkoff said. “Part of Antonino’s character was to stand up for people being bullied. It was in his nature.”

Royo said Antonino had a wife and two kids. “He was the provider, the heartbeat of that family,” Royo said. “Their lives are upside down right now because someone did something really stupid. Meaningless.”

Reached by phone Tuesday, Anna Antonino was too distraught to speak about her husband. Shortly after his death, however, she choked backed tears and said she wants to make sure the man responsible is caught and punished.

“He took the life of a nice, decent, hardworking, American citizen,” she told WFOR-Ch. 4.

“We should be able to walk in the streets freely and not to fear each other,” she told the station.

A piece of paper taped to a window at Antonino’s auto shop showed a gathering for him from 9 to 11 a.m. today at Scarano’s Funeral Home at 4351 Hollywood Blvd. in Hollywood, before heading to a cemetery.

The shooter is described as possibly in his 30s, about 5 feet 8 inches tall, bald and clean shaven.

Investigators ask anyone with information to call Broward Sheriff Detective Valerian Perez at 954-321-4356 or Broward Crime Stoppers, anonymously, at 954-493-8477.

Antonino