Bullets fired into the home of notorious Ontario mobster
Bullets were fired into the home of notorious mobster Pat Musitano overnight, just weeks after his brother Angelo was gunned down outside his own home.
In a news release, police announced that officers were called about reports of multiple gunshots fired on St. Clair Boulevard in central Hamilton just before 2:30 a.m.
Investigators got there and found "multiple spent bullet casings on the roadway and damage to a home believed to be from bullets," the news release reads. "No one was injured as a result of the shooting."
"Detectives believe this home was specifically targeted and confirm the home is associated to the Musitano family. Detectives continue to investigate and are considering the possibility that information and or evidence may be connected to other ongoing investigations including the murder of Angelo Musitano."
Three bullet holes were visible through the front windows of the home Tuesday morning. A CBC reporter approached a man walking out the front door, but the man ignored his questions and walked off.
Homicide Det. Sgt. Thom, who is heading up the investigation into Angelo Musitano's death, told CBC News Tuesday morning that the family still has not asked for any police assistance or protection.
Neighbour Nick Dismatsek heard the shots at 2:17 a.m.
"It was eight big loud blasts," he said. "Then I saw everybody crowding in the area."
"I thought, 'Jesus Christ — gunshots blasting off? Wow. You don't hear that every night.'"
Bullet holes could be seen in one of the front windows of the home Tuesday morning.
Dismatsek's mother heard the shots too. She bolted up in the middle of the night, first thinking that it was her son's new e-bike battery exploding. By the eighth shot, she realized that wasn't the case.
"It had a rhythm to it," she said, adding that her husband saw a car leaving the scene. Within five minutes, police were on the street, she said. Police say they believe that a vehicle was used to by the person or people involved in the shooting.
Staff Sgt. Mike Cunliffe told CBC News that it's too early to say how many suspects police might be looking for. "We're still investigating to see what the motive was, and how many people were actually involved," he said. Officers are currently canvassing the area nearby, searching for security camera video.
Cunliffe couldn't say for sure if this shooting was directly linked to the previous one that killed Angelo Musitano. "If the evidence has any similarities, we'll be sharing information with the homicide unit if it goes that way," he said.
Vehicle set on fire on the same street
Police were called to the same home in September of 2015, responding to reports of a vehicle that was set on fire. Police say there were damages to a 2013 Ford Edge and adjacent homes estimated at $60,000.
Nick said he's lived in the area 15 years, and remembers that night, too. But, he said, he's not worried for his safety.
"Those people wouldn't do it to anyone else other than who was targeted," he said.
Angelo Musitano (right) and Pat Musitano leaving Provincial Court for lunch in 1998. Shots were fired into Pat Musitano's home Tuesday morning.
Pat's brother Angelo was shot and killed in the driveway of his Waterdown home in early May, just a few days before his 40th birthday. Police say he was gunned down while his family was inside the home.
Organized crime expert James Dubro, who has written extensively about the Mafia in Ontario, told the CBC after Musitano was killed that Pat was the more "fearsome" of the two brothers. "[Pat] will, in time, be killed," he said. "There's no question about that."
The brothers were both charged with first-degree murder back in 1997, in connection with the brazen shooting of Hamilton crime boss Johnny "Pops" Papalia and one of his lieutenants, Carmen Barillaro.
They reached a deal and pleaded to conspiracy to commit murder in the death of Barillaro. In turn, the charges against them in connection with Papalia's death were dropped.
They were sentenced to 10 years in jail. They got out in 2007, and had mostly flown under the radar ever since.
http://www.cbc.ca/news/canada/hamilton/shooting-1.4179294
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