A father in New York City allegedly shot his 29-year-old son to death on New Year's eve. The young victim was visiting his abusive dad over the holidays to try and help him recover from a fall and chronic alcohol addiction.
Joseph Leone Jr. was shot in the chest at around 7:25 p.m. Friday, Dec. 31, on the sidewalk outside his dad’s home on Bay Street near Scarboro Avenue in Rosebank.
Paramedics rushed him to the Staten Island University Hospital, but despite all efforts, he was pronounced dead by the doctors.
“He went up there to help his daddy recover from alcoholism,” the victim’s wife, Kimberly Leone told NY Daily News.
“Joseph always told me, ‘I don’t want to be like my dad. I don’t want to be like my dad.’ And he still tried to help him,” she said.
The 57-year-old father, identified as Joseph Leone Sr. has admitted to shooting his son, prosecutors say.
“That shotgun in the garbage can — that’s the one I shot him with,” Leone Sr. told police, according to the criminal complaint against him.
Police say they have also recovered two shotguns, a box with four shotgun shells, and several boxes of .45-caliber and .44-caliber ammo from the suspect’s home.
“His dad was very abusive throughout his childhood. He always said that his dad beat him when he was little,” Kimberley said. “I never really knew the extent of it because his daddy put on a really great face when I was around.”
She said even after Leone Jr. joined the Army his dad berated him for not following his footsteps and becoming a Marine.
About two weeks before his death, Leone Jr. told Kimberley that his father had fallen down a flight of stairs at home.
“(The father) was still sitting on the stairs when he called Joe and told him that he needed help,” Kimberly Leone said.
“(Leone Jr.) had his own drug addiction but he recently went to rehab and got clean,” she explained.
“He said, ‘I’ll have to go up there and help my daddy recover from alcohol like you helped me to recover from drugs,’.”
Leone Sr. was arraigned Sunday, Jan. 2 for murder, manslaughter, and charges related to possession of weapons without a license. He was ordered held without bail.
Kimberly said her father-in-law is a cancer patient and that she fears he will try to use his condition as an insanity defense or claim.
“His dad should stay in jail,” Kimberly said. “I know New York doesn’t do the death penalty — but they should.”
Leone Jr. is survived by his wife and their three children, Nicholas, 8, Anthony, 3, and Gianna, 1.
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