An actor who had a recurring role on The Sopranos as a wannabe mafioso apparently took his part a little too seriously in real life.
Lillo Brancato Jr., 29, and another man are being held for the murder of an off-duty New York City police officer Saturday, following a shootout that erupted during a break-in.
Officer Daniel Enchautegui, 28, returning to his Pelham Bay-area residence in the Bronx around 5 a.m. at the end of his shift, heard glass shattering next door.
After informing his landlord and calling 911 to report a possible burglary in progress and request backup, Enchategui confronted the suspects, one of whom, Steven Armento, 48, allegedly pulled a gun and opened fire.
The officer, a three-year veteran, sustained a gunshot wound to the chest. He managed to get off eight rounds, hitting Armento six times, in the abdomen, groin, left arm and three times in the right leg, and Brancato twice, in the chest and groin.
Enchategui died an hour later from his wounds, becoming the second New York City police officer killed in less than two weeks.
Prosecutors plan to charge Armento, a convicted burglar, with first- and second- degree murder after he confessed to being the gunman.
Brancato, who was hospitalized in critical condition, faces second-degree murder charges, Steven Reed, spokesman for the Bronx District Attorney's Office, told E! Online.
"They're both in the hospital but haven't been arraigned," said Reed.
The two men, both hailing from Yonkers, will also be rung up on burglary and weapon-possession charges and are expected to be arraigned on Thursday. A police investigation is ongoing.
Brancato, who got his start in Hollywood playing Robert De Niro's son in 1993's A Bronx Tale, appeared in several episodes of HBO's The Sopranos during the 2000 season before getting whacked by Tony Soprano.
"This is deeply disturbing news, a tragedy beyond comprehension," De Niro said in a statement.
At the time of this weekend's shooting, Brancato lived in the Pelham Bay area and was purportedly the on-off boyfriend of one of Armento's daughters.
Initial reports suggested the men were burglarizing the house of a drug dealer to swipe some pharmaceuticals, but Mayor Michael Bloomberg said their target had been vacant for several months.
Police said Armento and Brancato had been at a strip club earlier that night and had intended to rob a different address. The actor had allegedly squeezed through a broken window to look for Valium, but finding the house empty, had just returned to a narrow alleyway when Enchautegui arrived.
After the shooting, the bleeding suspects fled the scene but were quickly nabbed by nearby police units. The NYPD says the two men made statements implicating themselves.
According the New York Times, Brancato's parents and their family attorney, Harvey Kaminsky, appeared yesterday outside the family's Yonkers home and stressed police must follow proper procedure.
"I assure everyone that it was a coerced illegal confession taken by overzealous policemen who suspended all of this man's rights because of the severity of the crime," the lawyer said.
Brancato's mother, Domenica Brancato, expressed sympathy for the officer's family, but feared her son might not be getting his due process guaranteed him by law.
"All I want is answers to my son's condition," she told the New York Times.
A spokesman for the police department had said investigators were going by the book.
This isn't Brancato's first run-in with police. He was arrested Mar. 11 in the Los Angeles suburb of Hermosa Beach for allegedly being under the influence of drugs. Police spotted him as they were investigating a suspected drug dealer. According to the Daily Breeze of Torrance, California, Brancato's urine sample tested positive for benzodiazepines, an anti-anxiety drug found in Xanax and Valium, along with marjuana and cocaine.
Aside from his Sopranos stint, Brancato's acting credits include Crimson Tide, Renaissance Man and Mambo Café, as well as appearances on such TV shows as NYPD Blue.
Both uniformed and plainclothes NYPD officers paid condolence calls to Enchautegui's family. He was remembered by friends and colleagues as a good man who served the public admirably.