Killed by buckshot

Odd pistol tied to man held in B’klyn shoot

A man charged with the murder of a much-loved, outgoing Brooklyn neighbor while he was walking his dogs used an unusual weapon in the stunning attack — a buckshot pistol that fires steel pellets, police said Wednesday.

George Vayos, 52, said little during his arraignment Wednesday as prosecutors described an argument between him and Michael Scully, 62, early Monday on 74th St. near Seventh Ave. in Bay Ridge before the shooting started — the bulk of it captured on security video. He was ordered held without bail.

“The defendant and the victim got into a dispute, and the defendant shot at the victim,” prosecutor Wilfredo

Cotto said at the Brooklyny Criminal Court hearing. “There was a search warrant executed and a gun and the clothing the defendant wore at time of the incident were recovered inside the defendant’s apartment.”

Vayos (photo r.) allegedly used a pistol that fires buckshot to shoot Scully (photo l.), striking him in the head and shoulders. The victim staggered back to the front of his home and collapsed. He was rushed to NYU Langone Hospital- Brooklyn but couldn’t be saved.

Usingg securityy cameras, detectives tracked Vayos to his home a few blocks away after the shooting, a police source said. Vayos immediately asked for a lawyer after his arrest, and the motive remains unclear, NYPD Chief of Detectives Rodney Harrison said.

The buckshot pistol was found in Vayos’ home after cops served a search warrant there, Harrison said.

The Rev. Norman Bennett, 75, of Our Lady of Perpetual Help, told the Daily News that Scully loved pranks and throwing picnics at his home.

“He knew so many people,” the t priest said. “He would have h made a great politician.”

Scully suffered a blow when w a woman he planned to marry died of cancer two years ago, Father Bennett said. “It was very heavy for him.”

Vayos is slated to return to court c Sept. 14. His lawyer Edward w Mandery declined to comment Wednesday.

Vayos left behind a long trail of mostly low-level arrests in Pinellas County, Fla., dating to the 1990s and early 2000s. He was charged with arson there in 1994 but acquitted, records show. He was also acquitted in an assault case during that time.

In the city, Vayos has 14 prior arrests, including an assault in 2005 in Brooklyn. Several of his arrests are sealed. A relative reached by phone in Florida declined to comment.