STATEN ISLAND, N.Y. -- Death came knocking for a Mariners Harbor man today -- wearing a gray suit.
Shaun Adorno, 31, answered the door of his apartment on 70 Heaney Avenue at around 8 a.m. only to be greeted by three bullets from a well-dressed man with a gun, according to police and eyewitness accounts.
The bullets struck Adorno in the neck and chest. He died of his wounds at Richmond University Medical Center in West Brighton hours later.
The gunman -- described as a stout and olive-skinned, and dressed in a "charcoal gray suit," tie and dress shoes -- fled down Wilcox Street and has not been apprehended.
The motive in the shooting is unknown, and there are no suspects at this time, police said.
Adorno was living in the apartment with an unidentified woman with whom he had a child, law enforcement sources said. The woman told police a man had shot her "husband" -- though no court records indicate the two were married.
Court records, however, did indicate Adorno had a troubled past.
In 1998, at age 19, Adorno ran a stop sign and struck a 7-year-old boy while driving a friend’s black Lincoln Continental in Sunset Park, Brooklyn, according to court documents and news accounts. Adorno fled the scene, as an off-duty police officer chased him into Manhattan, where he struck another car. At that point, Adorno got out his car and fought with the officer, striking him with a steel steering-wheel lock before running away on foot.
Adorno turned himself in two days later, after his friend was charged in the hit-and-run.
It is unclear what charges Adorno faced, and how that case was resolved.
As more than a dozen investigators and Emergency Service Unit cops worked at the scene this morning, the front door of the home stood open and a line of what appeared to be blood could be seen on the walkway in front of the house.
Police kept a large area of the neighborhood around the Heaney Avenue home blocked off, forcing drivers to make U-turns in the middle of the street to avoid the scene.
The three-story home, part of a row of townhouses, is at the corner of Heaney, near the Western Beef shopping center that’s on Forest.
An in-ground pool could be seen behind the home, with a child’s pink plastic chair and a small swing on a nearby porch deck. A pink, child-sized swimming vest could be seen drying on a railing.
Crime Scene Unit cops covered the passenger side of a silver Range Rover parked across the street with brown paper and what appeared to be a black plastic garbage bag. It is unknown if the vehicle belonged to the victim or was involved in the crime. Police also looked at a dark Galant sedan, with no license plate on the back, that was parked in front of the home.
Neighborhood residents who came to look at the crime scene said the incident was shocking. None knew the victim or anyone who lived in the house, but said that the people living there had only been in the neighborhood for a couple of years.
"This hits a little close to home," said Frank Magliocca, a longtime Islander who has lived in the neighborhood for nine years. "After that arson in Port Richmond the other day, Staten Island isn’t Staten Island anymore."
Linda Morovic, who has lived across the street from the scene of the shooting for 21 years, said the neighborhood is generally safe.
"Never did something like this happen," said Ms. Morovic. "But you don’t know what people are involved in. Why would you just knock on someone’s door and shoot?"
Another resident, who didn’t want to give her name, said the shooting was "crazy" and also wondered at the motive behind the incident.
"You hate to see anything like this in the neighborhood," she said. "There’s something weird about this. They have to figure out why someone would do this in broad daylight."
Another resident echoed her puzzlement.
"It’s like something out of a movie," he said. "Nobody shoots you for nothing, right?"
-- Reported by Peter N. Spencer and Tom Wrobleski
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