NEW YORK
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Police officers fatally shot a retired sergeant on Staten Island Tuesday morning in what might be a case of "suicide by cop," a law enforcement source said.
The dead man, retired NYPD sergeant Jason Aiello, had been under local and federal investigation in connection with a mob-related hit in April of a jeweler he had been body guarding, the source said.
Aiello, 36, carrying two guns, had been yelling in front of his family's Rosebank home Tuesday morning after slipping out of a psychiatric ward at nearby Bayley Seton Hospital, sources said. The hospital had called 911 and officers had been searching the Clifton neighborhood around the hospital for Aiello, police said.
Police say that Aiello shot up to seven times at a sergeant and police officer called to St. Mary's Avenue shortly before 7 a.m. The two officers, who were not struck, fired a total of 19 shots in return, hitting Aiello three times, police said. He was pronounced dead on arrival at Richmond University Medical Center, police said.
Authorities are still sorting out the details but apparently Aiello had refused police orders to drop his weapons, the source said.
The police sergeant on the scene had managed to remove one of Aiello's guns from the small of his back, police said. But when the sergeant tried to handcuff Aiello, he broke free, ran across the street and began firing at the officers from a second gun, at one point shooting from inside a parked car, police said. The NYPD said they recovered two 9mm semi automatics from the scene.
"This could be suicide by cop or it could be that he was just emotionally disturbed and menacing cops with a gun," said the source.
Aiello's relatives were shocked that he would have exchanged fire with police officers. "This is horrible, This kid, I'm telling you something happened," said Aiello's uncle, Thomas Olsen. "This kid did not have that type of personality."
"Huge surprise," said his cousin, Jessica Statile. "The last person you would think that something like could happen to."
Aiello had been with jeweler Louis Antonelli on April 29th in West Brighton when two men ambushed and shot him in the chest in what the FBI believes was a hit sanctioned by the Genovese crime family.
Authorities charged two Staten Island men with the killing but continue to investigate details of the case, including whether Aiello may have set up his client to be killed, sources said. Aiello, who had been longtime friends with the jeweler, had uncharacteristically failed to carry his gun that April evening when the hit men surprised Antonelli, 43, outside the El Sabor Tropical restaurant, the source said. Aiello had left the restaurant moments before and was not at the jeweler's side during the ambush.
Sources said the late jeweler had done business with the Genovese family. Untouched at his murder scene was his SUV filled with jewelry and cash .
Aiello had served with the NYPD for 12 years and retired early on a disability after injuring his knee, police said.
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