Long Island bodybuilder Dino Tomassetti Jr., accused of shooting his parents on Christmas day, allegedly fired on the couple during a custody dispute over his one-year-old baby, Nassau County police said Wednesday.
Tomassetti Jr., 29, was arraigned Wednesday afternoon on two counts of attempted murder. He was placed back in custody directly after the hearing on Long Island and no bail has been set.
The argument over the child reportedly escalated at about 10 a.m. on December 25. The hulking trainer allegedly tried to leave the family’s 8,751 square-foot Hewlett Harbor mansion with the child, but his parents tried to stop him, according Nassau Police Commissioner Patrick Ryder.
‘He became involved in a domestic dispute with his parents who were caring for the one-year-old, during that argument it obviously escalated,’ Ryder said during a Wednesday morning press conference. ‘[He] tried to take the child from [his] parents and attempted to leave the residence. When the parents objected, the defendant produced a .22-caliber pistol.’
The police commissioner said the child’s mother and the infant witnessed the shooting.
Tomassetti Jr. allegedly shot his mother, Vencenza Tomassetti, 64, in the head near the left temple, and then turned the pistol on his father, Rocco Tomassetti, 65, whom he shot in the back and the wrist, according to police.
‘He struck his father then in the head with the gun numerous times after he ran out of bullets,’ Ryder said.
Both parents underwent surgery and have been released from the hospital. Rocco got out on December 27 and Vencenza was let go on December 28.
The child is currently with his birth mother, according to the Nassau police commissioner. Tomassetti is due back in court on January 5.
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Dino Tomassetti Jr, 29, left the Bergen County Superior Courthouse on Wednesday to head to New York, where he’s expected to face charges in the shooting of his parents
Dino Tomassetti, 29, was held at the Bergen County Jail in New Jersey (pictured right). A new mugshot was released on Wednesday (left) after he was taken to New York
Tomassetti Jr., who does not have a permit for a gun, has no prior arrests, according to Ryder.
His lawyer, Marco Laracca, was not immediately available for comment.
After the incident last week, the son jumped in his Cadillac Escalade SUV and fled to Mahwah, New Jersey, according to authorities, where he was tracked down via the vehicles GPS and arrested later Christmas day.
Tomassetti was held in the Bergen County Jail on charges of being a fugitive from justice until he waived extradition and was returned to Long Island on Wednesday morning.
The hulking and handcuffed Tomassetti Jr., 29, wearing a hooded sweatshirt, black pants and a surgical mask, said nothing as he was lead away from the New Jersey facility to an awaiting Nassau County police car.
He wore a hooded sweatshirt, black pants and a surgical mask as he was lead away to an awaiting Nassau County police car
The alleged shooter is being taken back to Long Island where he is expected to be charged
He stayed mum and stared straight ahead as detectives led him through a gauntlet of photographers and reporters peppering him with questions.
Rocco and Vincenza have three children, including twins Rocco and Dino Jr., and daughter Gina, 24.
Rocco Tomassetti owns several construction firms and helped build some of Manhattan’s most iconic towers, including the Goldman Sachs headquarters and One World Trade Center.
The company and the family have been embroiled in several construction-related scandals and reportedly took a bribe from a mob turncoat.
Rocco was accused of trying to bribe union officials and dumping cement sludge in Newtown Creek. His company Empire Transit Mix was banned from city contracting under former Mayor Rudy Giuliani, according to The New York Times.
The family has previously faced indictments for their alleged mob ties, and their sprawling home on Long Island is now surrounded by yellow tape as police investigate the shooting in the exclusive South Shore community, which is in the 95th percentile for public safety.
Construction magnate Rocco Tomassetti, 65, and wife Vinceta Marsicano-Tomassettti, 64, were shot inside their 8,751-square foot mansion in Hewlett Harbor on Christmas morning
The couple has three children, including twins Rocco and Dino, and daughter Gina, 24.
Shooting suspect Dino Tomassetti (left) with his twin brother Rocco and younger sister, Gina
The family’s sprawling, $3.2million Long Island estate was surrounded by yellow tape Saturday
Dino works as a personal trainer in East Williamsburg, Brooklyn. His social media pages are filled with pictures of him flexing his bulging muscles.
His Instagram page, which was set to private as of Wednesday, was stacked with snaps of him lifting weights and occasionally traveling to more exotic parts of the world such as Paris and the Caribbean.
In one photo, he’s posing in a car, showing off a pricey Breitling watch. In another post, he boasts about his 240-pound physique.
He writes that he is able to deadlift 725 pounds, squat 625 pounds and bench press 550 pounds.
Tomassetti’s social media is filled with photos of his ripped physique
In one photo, he’s posing in a car, showing off a pricy Breitling watch. In another post, he boasts about his 240-pound physique
His Instagram page, was set to private as of Wednesday, was stacked with photos of himself lifting weights, flexing muscles, and occasionally traveling to more exotic parts of the world
The family has been embroiled in legal troubles in the past, with federal prosecutors claiming his late grandfather had ties to the mob.
Dino’s grandfather, Dino Tomassetti Sr., is a legend in New York City, both for what he accomplished as a first-generation immigrant and for the scandals that he became embroiled in.
He owned construction company Laquila Group and had been linked by the feds to organized crime.
A 2006 New York Times profile detailed how Dino Sr. was once indicted for allegedly illegally making thousands of dollars in illegal payoffs to union brass over the span of a decade. The elder Dino denied the allegations.
But then in 1997 both Rocco and Dino Sr. were arrested for allegedly operating an illegal waste site next to their company’s Brooklyn headquarters, the New York Times reported. That year, the company pleaded guilty to filing fake documents related to a project at Elmhurst Hospital Center in Queens.
‘Laquila, which had a $2.5 million contract to build concrete decking for a new wing at the hospital, had secretly and illegally subcontracted the work to a second company for $1.4 million, enabling Laquila to collect a $1 million profit,’ the Times reported. ‘The scheme came to light after Laquila failed to pay the second company.’
In the same article, the outlet reported that the company was indicted for racketeering in 1987 for allegedly bribing local officials to let them illegally dump construction waste in New Jersey. The scheme was allegedly organized by a member of the Gambino crime family.
But the charges were dropped after Laquila agreed to pay a $25,000 fine.
In 2006, a scathing New York City Sanitation Department report rejected an application by Rocco and Dino Sr. to operate a waste business in the city, calling the pair ‘unworthy’ of obtaining a registration.
The request was denied because the applicants lacked ‘good character, honesty, and integrity,’ the report said.
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