Today's Post sheds some light on the decades-old feud that ended Tuesday in the grisly death of 77 year-old retired fireman Carmelo Calabro in a Bensonhurst barbershop. While Calabro's family never got along with the family of his shooter, Michael Mininni, people living on the block noted that tensions escalated considerably after Calabro lost his son in the attacks of September 11, 2001. "It changed him a lot" one neighbor said. "You could see he was a different person."
Carmelo considered his son, Salvatore, as "a piece of gold." Though the younger Calabro was off-duty, when hearing of the attacks on the Twin Towers he joined his ladder company anyway to assist and was never seen again. "9/11 had to have destroyed him" another neighbor said, and perhaps as a result, all 14 harassment complaints filed against Calabro occurred after the death of his son.
After trying everything from "smearing cat feces" on the Mininni's cars to taking the time to "erect--painstakingly and by hand--a 6 foot-high-brick wall" to separate their properties, Calabro reached a breaking point Tuesday and stormed into the barbershop waving an illegal semiautomatic weapon, telling Mininni that "this is the day you are going to die!"
Mininni, a correction officer, was bitten by Calabro several times while struggling with his weapon before he drew his service-issued pistol and shot Calabro "in the face, neck, and torso." Because Mininni is believed to have acted in self-defense, the Post's sources say "they are unlikely to convene a grand jury."
