Still, he was not the kind of person anyone imagined would someday pull off the highest-profile mob killing in decades.
Comello, a 24-year-old born and raised on Staten Island’s South Shore, is accused of gunning down a Gambino crime family leader, Francesco “Franky Boy” Cali, on a quiet street in Todt Hill last week.
The shooting rocketed Comello, an otherwise unsensational young man who was struggling to launch his adult life, into true-crime infamy. But in the days since Cali, 53, was shot 10 times, Comello — as well as his motive — has remained a cipher.
Police have not explained how Comello even crossed into Cali’s orbit, let alone why he allegedly decided to kill him. Comello has no known connection to organized crime, according to law enforcement officials and his friends.
Whatever the motive of the shooting, the Gambino crime family has not historically been a forgiving entity, and officials say Comello faces a threat to his life in prison. He is being held in protective custody in New Jersey, and is expected to be transferred to Staten Island on Monday.
An outlandish twist came this week when Comello, at his first court appearance, displayed symbols and phrases associated with far-right conspiracy theories, scrawled on his palm with a pen. His lawyer said he had become obsessed with such theories in recent months. In February, officials said, Comello had shown up at public buildings announcing he wanted to make a “citizen’s arrest” of prominent liberal Democrats like Mayor Bill de Blasio.
In his only comments since his arrest, Comello was cryptic. “Don’t believe in fairy tales,” he said to a Daily News reporter on March 20, before abruptly ending a short jailhouse interview.
How all of the story’s incongruous pieces — a mob boss, a far-right conspiracy theory, a struggling young man from a middle-class Staten Island home — fit together remains unknown. Yet a fuller picture has emerged of a rudderless person who appeared to take an abruptly ominous turn and had been influenced by conspiracy theories in the dark corners of the internet.
The son of a veteran manager at Bloomberg LP and a construction worker, Comello graduated from Tottenville High School in 2012. He was described by two former classmates as aloof but easily influenced, a teenager who sought approval from popular crowds but was never quite accepted into them.
He experimented in high school with drugs, two former classmates said, and occasionally picked fights while under the influence. According to social media accounts, Comello started a Facebook group in 2011 to discuss prices of marijuana.
But as high school friends matured and moved forward, Comello spiraled downward. By adulthood, his drug habit had escalated into a serious problem. According to three friends, Comello wrestled with drug addiction and popped pills, including OxyContin.
A habitual smoker of Marlboro Reds, he was a regular at Campos deli a few blocks from his family’s home. Didar Janid, a deli employee, said Comello was friendly but had a combative reputation.
“He was a little bit aggressive,” said Janid, 46. “Gradually he was calming down.”
Comello’s mother, Nicole Mucillo-Comello, 51, is a well-established executive overseeing information systems in the Bloomberg organization, where she has worked for 28 years, according to her social media accounts. His father, Alfonso Comello, 54, worked in Staten Island’s construction industry.
Anthony Comello is the middle of three children. His older brother Alfonso, 30, works in construction and was a mason for the New York City Housing Authority until 2016. Comello’s younger sister, Nicolette, 21, attends St. John’s University, according to her social media profile.
On Retford Avenue, where Comello lived with his parents in a spacious, two-story home, he led a quiet existence. He was sometimes seen walking the neighborhood with a friend who lived nearby, neighbors said. Reached by a reporter, the friend declined to comment.
Comello appeared to have odd construction jobs and was often seen working with his father, according to neighbors. The family home had a fleet of pickup trucks, one said.
“I’ve seen his parents numerous times,” said Victor Ujeck, who lives across the street from the family’s home. “Very nice people.”
“I would never imagine he could have done this,” Ujeck said. “I was shocked.”
Law enforcement officials were initially investigating whether Comello had a romantic interest in a female relative of Cali’s.
In an early conversation with detectives, Comello said Cali had told him to stay away from a young woman in the Cali family, police said. Yet neighbors and friends did not recall hearing about a girlfriend or a love interest.
Despite his drug use and intermittent scuffles, Comello had no serious run-ins with the law before this year. Whatever his criminal inclinations, they escalated from bland to bizarre in February, when U.S. Marshals kicked him out of a Manhattan federal courthouse. Comello had entered the building and demanded a citizen’s arrest of local and national political figures, including de Blasio and House Speaker Nancy Pelosi.
The stunt was noticed by the city police and the marshals, who law enforcement officials say put out a bulletin alerting other city institutions to watch for Comello. The following day, he was seen at the mayor’s residence, Gracie Mansion, where officers recognized him. Comello left the property before the situation escalated, but spoke briefly with officers.
“These were rambling statements,” said John Miller, chief of the New York Police Department’s intelligence division. “He wanted to make a citizen’s arrest of Maxine Waters, Congressman Schiff. He blamed Nancy Pelosi and all kinds of other people for stealing the election.”
The motivation for Comello’s February stunt became clearer Monday, when he was arraigned in a New Jersey court. As he entered the courtroom, he raised his open palm, where he had scrawled the letter Q and several phrases associated with the Reddit-born QAnon conspiracy theory.
That baseless theory suggests, among other things, the U.S. government is run by pedophiles and President Donald Trump will overthrow them. It encourages followers not to trust career politicians, particularly Democratic ones.
Comello’s lawyer, Robert Gottlieb, said the young man became fascinated with QAnon and other far-right internet narratives involving Trump. Friends and family, Gottlieb said, described a noticeable and recent shift in Comello’s personality as he fell deeper into digital rabbit holes.
In the days since Comello’s arrest, his family has all but gone underground. Attempts to reach his parents were unsuccessful; a neighbor said Wednesday that he had seen the family packing bags and leaving their Eltingville home, and thought they had moved out. At Comello’s older brother’s home, a man said the family did not want to talk. At a separate address listed for an apparent relative, a man told a reporter to “take a walk.”
Cali’s murder was not the Comello family’s first brush with the law. Comello’s older brother, Alfonso, is facing felony assault and burglary charges in Richmond County for an incident in Staten Island in September, charges that he denies and is fighting.
According to a criminal complaint, Alfonso Comello, entered the home of a woman he knew on Sept. 25 with an accomplice, and beat the woman’s face with the handle of a knife. The beating was violent enough to knock out several of the woman’s teeth.
The woman, whose name is redacted in court papers, was tied to a bed as Alfonso Comello rummaged through drawers and demanded money. He has pleaded not guilty. His lawyer, Arthur Louis Aidala, said Alfonso Comello categorically denied the charges.
Missing from the Comello family troubles, however, is any obvious connection to Cali.
According to police, Anthony Comello entered Cali’s neighborhood late on March 13 and backed his blue pickup truck into Cali’s Cadillac Escalade, knocking off the SUV’s license plate.
He rang Cali’s doorbell and the two walked outside and exchanged words, according to surveillance video obtained by the police. Comello picked up the Escalade’s license plate, and handed it to Cali. Then he allegedly pulled a pistol and opened fire and fired 12 shots, hitting Cali 10 times. He drove away in his pickup.
Comello’s fingerprints were found on the license plate, police said.
“Something went very wrong here,” Gottlieb said.
This article originally appeared in The New York Times.