What's Up With Richmond County?

The general perception of Staten Island is that it's the quietest borough, the most suburban. But in the past few days, there have been two incidents that make the least populated borough seem like Deadwood.

Last night, the Staten Island Advance reports, a dispute erupted when some teenagers parked a Honda outside Leonardo Cavicchio's house on Edgegrove Avenue around 8:30PM. Cavicchio "approached the teens and an argument ensued, during which Cavicchio slashed one of the Honda's rear tires." And then, as the teens were getting ready to change the tire, they confronted Cavicchio, who had gone into his house to get a rifle. A neighbor heard gunfire and called the police.

It took the police - and Cavicchio's brother - an hour to get him out of the house, and when Cavicchio was placed in a patrol car, he kicked one of the windows out. The police are still trying to come up with a motive, but they did find "two rifles, multiple shotgun shells and fireworks mortar tubes."

And on Saturday night, a woman fired two times from her home near Wolfe's Pond Park. Lori Verna escaped, but the police searched the house and found:

-Action Arms Israeli military industrial Uzi
- Two E.A. Company .223 rifles "with the ability to accept a detachable magazine, a pistol grip that protrudes conspicuously beneath the action of the weapon, a telescopic stock and a threaded barrel designed to accommodate a flash suppressor"
- A .32 caliber Colt
- A .45 caliber Smith and Wesson with six rounds in the magazine
- A .45 caliber Uzi submachine gun with 15 rounds in the magazine
- Three large-capacity ammunition feeding devices
- At least 16 different types of ammunition, including live 9 mm hollow-point rounds

Verna turned herself in last night and was charged with weapons possession, reckless endangerment and menacing. The two other people living in the house, Frank Voto and Randall Hafele, were also arrested.

Contact the author of this article or email tips@gothamist.com with further questions, comments or tips.

By Jen Chung in News on July 17, 2007 5:27 PM

Comments [rss]

guest

I was in Wolfe's Pond Park that day; the police had said it was a "domestic disturbance" and there was also talk of a hostage situation. No one was allowed to leave or enter the park from around 6:00 to 10:30 pm.

And concerning Staten Island: it seems like it's an institution in New York City to hate Staten Island (I live there and I go to school in Manhattan, all of the jokes are really lame and so so old), and I've found that some people have no real reason to hate it other than, here's my chance to be witty on a topic that doesn't actually affect me, except minus the witty part. Because I really don't get it, is it the fact of it's existence what's bothering everyone?

guest

#20 That's the most honest thing I've read. LOL

#22 You're right--to a point. Staten Island used to be a fairly nice place before the lowlifes moved in. But SI has some of the tackiest new housing I've ever seen. What's up with all those cheap-looking townhouses clumped so close together with no green spaces?

other_islander

SI may not be paradise, but neither is it a dump. The Greenbelt, Great Kills Seashore, Snug Harbor, Jacques Marchais Tibetan Museum, Alice Austen House... interesting places to explore; give it a try sometime.

There are 5 boroughs in this city, and each one of them has some cream and some crap.

Open your mind and your eyes.

guest

I'm from NJ, we don't want Staten Island - keep it.

guest

All the mobbed up crazy ginzos move there from the hurst if they can't afford a place in Dyker Heights, so this doesn't surprise me

guest

Sweep SI under the carpet and pretend that Queens, Brooklyn, Manhattan & Bronx doesn't have any undesireable citizens & neighborhoods either.

Rocknrope

Oooo, irony, is that what it's called? Dope.

zodak

"My (one of many) Ralph Wiggum moment(s) of the day."

"Me fail English? That's unpossible."

;)

JMH

I don't have the authority to speak for New Jersey, but if I did, I'd say: We don't want SI either.

guest

I think Rocknrope has some irony failure. But, hey, in a post by a moron, what can you expect?

guest

It's Staten Island week on NY1 news.

NY1 has a few reporters from Staten Island. guess which meathead is from SI?

guest

Ah, the forest borough. Weren't they supposed to secede? Who's ass do we have to kiss to make that happen? Can we pay New Jersey $1,250 to take those 500,000 Republicans off our hands?

guest

What about Strong Island?

Rocknrope

"I have one question for you: go fuck yourself."

Usually, questions contain an interrogative and end with a question mark. But, hey, in a post about Staten Island, what can you expect?

guest

The general perception of Staten Island? Cheesy and full of annoying people. There really is no good reason to ever go to Staten Island.

guest

I doubt that any of those "submachine guns" were actually fully automatic.

Pretty much every gun listed there is perfectly legal outside of New York State.

guest

guest? are you speaking to yorself?

re: "go fuck yourself".

I can top that one, go fuck yourself with a power saw.

Ps. SI is a dump, literally.

guest

I remember reading that there was a lot of opposition on Staten Island to the construction of the Verrazano Bridge which now extends from Brooklyn to Staten Island. One concern was that Staten Island would then become more accessible to certain types of undesirable people who lived in Brooklyn.

Forty years later--it looks like that fear may have become a reality. Staten Island has changed considerably and not for the better.

guest

Found in Verna's Staten Island home:

- Action Arms Israeli military industrial Uzi

- Two E.A. Company .223 rifles

- A .32 caliber Colt

- A .45 caliber Smith&Wesson with six rounds in the magazine

- A .45 caliber Uzi submachine gun with 15 rounds in the magazine

Yeah, she needed all these weapons to "protect" herself. Isn't that what the gun advocates say? They claim that the right to bear arms is necessary for protection.

guest

Guest, I think you also posted about Staten Island earlier. If that's the case, I have one question for you: Go fuck yourself.

And if that's not the case, do it anyway.