Police expect to charge man in killing of reputed mob boss
NEW YORK » Police took a 24-yearold 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 Saturday.
The motive for the killing was unclear, Dermot Shea, the New York Police Department’s chief of detectives, said at a news conference.
“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.”
He identified the man as Anthony Comello, and sources said he was taken into custody in Brick Township, New Jersey, on Saturday morning. He was being held in the Ocean County Jail at the request of the police department, according to a jail official.
Several officials said preliminary information suggested that the killing of 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 in its early stages.
After speaking with detectives Saturday morning, Comello retained a lawyer and has not given a statement since.
“We expect him to be charged with the murder of Francesco Cali,” Shea said.
Cali, 53, was shot 10 times, the chief said. 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 Cali’s parked Cadillac Escalade, damaging it. He then walked up to the door of Cali’s house and rang the bell, where, law enforcement sources said, his face was caught on video.
Cali and Comello spoke for roughly a minute, in a conversation also recorded by surveillance cameras and reviewed by investigators.
The footage showed Comello, dressed in a hooded sweatshirt and a baseball cap, bend down and pick up a license plate that had fallen off the Escalade.
Cali took the license plate and walked back to his car, where he placed it in the rear. At that moment, the gunman pulled out a 9 mm pistol and fired 12 times, officials said.
The truck Comello drove was recovered Saturday morning in New Jersey. The handgun used to kill Cali has not been found.