Suspect sought after Hamilton mobster gunned down outside home

A member of a notorious Ontario mobster family was gunned down outside his home in what police are calling a targeted shooting.

Hamilton police said Angelo Musitano, 39, was shot multiple times as he sat in his pickup truck in his driveway in the community of Waterdown on Tuesday afternoon.

The suspect — described by police as a stocky man — took off in a dark sedan, police said. Paramedics took Musitano to the hospital, where he later died.

Det. Sgt. Peter Thom said Musitano is a member of a wellknown crime family in Hamilton.

Musitano and his brother, Pat Musitano, were charged with firstdegree murder in the 1997 deaths of Hamilton crime boss Johnny “Pops” Papalia, and his associate, Carmen Barillaro.

The brothers pleaded guilty in 2000 to conspiracy to commit murder in Barillaro’s death. As part of a plea deal, the charges relating to Papalia’s death were withdrawn, according to Parole Board of Canada documents.

Shortly after Papalia’s death, Barillaro accused Pat Musitano of his boss’s killing, according to the documents.

Angelo Musitano and his family, who has been involved in organized crime for three generations, took Barillaro’s “threats of retribution seriously,” the documents said.

On his brother’s instructions, Angelo Musitano gave the shooter the go ahead to kill Barillaro, the parole board said.

Then on July 23, 1997, about two months after Papalia’s death, Angelo Musitano along with the shooter went to Barillaro’s home in Niagara Falls, Ont. The shooter went in and shot Barillaro in the head and chest, according to the parole documents.