Trashed Shotgun Kills Construction Worker

A Ridgewood construction site turned deadly Friday, when a sawed-off shotgun that a worker found in a nearby trash bin, accidentally fired when it was being inspected by a co-worker.
According to police in the 104th precinct, the accident occured shortly before 8 a.m. when Orano Stepcic, 52, noticed a plastic case in the trash container outside his construction site, a three-story building on Woodward Avenue, close to Green Avenue.
Stepcic, a member of the Excavators Local 731 of the Laborers International Union, took the case out of the container and found an old, 12-gauge Ithaca shotgun inside. Stepcic handed it to his co-worker, whose name was not released. While the two inspected the gun, it accidentally fired, hitting Stepcic in the neck and killing him instantly.
The co-worker who was handling the gun at the time of the death was questioned by police but not charged.
Police scoured the trash bin and the area for other guns, but found nothing. Residents and workers were interviewed late Friday but the guns origins were not determined. As of Tuesday, police at the 104th said there were still no leads on the guns provenance, though they speculated that a non-resident could have dropped the weapon in the garbage while walking by the area.
Stepcic, an immigrant from Croatia, lived with Bruna, his wife of 31 years, in Garden City Park in Nassau County. He is survived by his daughter, Sue, 25 years old.
Stepcic was working at an ADC Contracting construction site at the time of his death. His co-workers and supervisor declined to comment. Construction renewed on Friday after a short break.