By Tanangachi Mfui and Alison Gendar
The Daily News
NEW YORK — A retired NYPD sergeant was shot and killed by an on-duty cop in Staten Island this morning after he repeatedly refused to drop his gun.
Sources identified the victim as Jason Aiello, a bodyguard of jewler Louis Antonelli, who was fatally shot in the borough in April.
Cops were called to St. Mary’s Ave. in Rosebank about 6:55 a.m. after witnesses saw Aiello outside his home screaming and waving a gun.
“Jason, drop the gun!” at least one of the responding officers hollered.
Aiello was warned a second and third time. When he failed to comply, he was shot in the head.
“He was a cop,” a police source said. “He knew what to do when ordered to drop his weapon. It looks like suicide by cop.”
The retired cop’s name surfaced on April 29 after Antonelli, a jeweler and his longtime friend, was shot outside El Sabor Tropical in West Brighton.
Aiello was still inside the restaurant at the time of the shooting and wasn’t hurt. Antonelli died on May 12.
Two men were charged with murder in what authorities described as a botched robbery. Law enforcement sources haven’t ruled out mob ties in that shooting.
Copyright 2008 The Daily News