This might be one of the crazier landlord-tenant dispute-turned-murder incidents ever. Paul Siddo, landlord at 661 Watkins Street in Brownsville, was fatally shot in the face by the boyfriend of a tenant. Siddo had apparently complained to a tenant about her leaving a bicycle in the hallway - basically telling her and her mother not to pile up garbage in the hallway (including "dirty diapers, food, a stove"). The tenants also owed $3,000 in rent. The police were on the scene when their argument got heated, but "assessed the situation as a civil matter that should be handled by landlord-tenant court."
Witnesses told the Post that the bicycle owner pointed out Siddo, who was in his van, to three men in a car, one of whom then shot him. And Newsday reports:
A police source said the suspect acted on the urging of his girlfriend, who was the tenant involved in the dispute. She later lambasted him for overreacting, claiming she told him that she wanted him only to shoot and wound the landlord, Paul Siddo, 41, not kill him, the source said.
Oh, only "shoot and wound the landlord"? That makes all the difference! We imagine the police arrested both the boyfriend and girlfriend.
