A reputed gangster from NYC was shot dead driving McDonald's

DOSSIER: A McDonald's restaurant in Pittsburgh, July 18, 2018. The 71-year-old gangster Sylvestre Zottola was shot and killed during a shooting of a McDonald's in the Bronx on Thursday. according to sources.
(Associated Press)

A reputed gangster, whose son was injured in a typing attempt three months ago, was shot dead Thursday afternoon while waiting for a cup of coffee in a McDonald's in the Bronx, police said.

Sylvester Zottola, a 71-year-old associate of Bonanno's criminal family, was shot dead in front of the fast-food restaurant around 4:45 pm, sources told the New York Daily News. He was reportedly beaten five times, including one on his head and three on his chest. He was also shot in the shoulder.

He was declared dead on the scene. A law enforcement official described killing the mafia, the New York Times reported. Zottola had been sued for months by someone who wanted him dead, and it seems that someone has caught up with him, according to the Times.

Zottola had ordered an average coffee during the driving service and his car was put in a box when the gunman opened fire, sources told The New York Post.

The gunman wore a black hooded sweatshirt and escaped into a gray vehicle, the police told The News newspaper.

No arrests were made.

His 41-year-old son, Salvatore Zottola, was wounded when an armed gunman opened fire on him in front of his Bronx home on July 11.

The July shootout was recorded on a surveillance video, but the young Zottola did not cooperate with the authorities and no arrests were made, sources told The Post.

Investigators believe that the attack on Salvatore was meant to be a message for his father, who received his share of aggression attempts, the newspaper reported.

Sylvester has survived three attacks in the past year, the report says. In September 2017, an assailant stunned him near his home in the Bronx.

Two months later, a suspect who was carrying a firearm tried to force him into a vehicle. Last December, one in three burglars searched his home and stabbed him in the neck, leaving him in critical condition.

Thursday was the fatal conclusion to the months of "gangland assaults" against Sylvester and his son, according to the Times. In the 1990s to early 2000s, the father-and-son team provided and maintained Joker Poker machines at gaming centers controlled by crowds, the paper quoted court documents as saying.