By Sophia Chang
Moreover, officers from the 111th Precinct arrested the intended robbery victim after they found several ounces of marijuana and illegal firearms inside his apartment while responding to his 911 call, police said.On Friday around 11 a.m. two men wearing hard hats knocked on Robert Paolicelli's door at 203-58 27th Ave., told him they were with the gas utility Keyspan and asked to check the gas lines, according to police. Paolicelli let them into the apartment and the two men headed toward the stove, but one of the burglars began hitting Paolicelli in the head with the butt of a revolver and the gun went off, striking Eriberto Solis, a 36-year-old Bronx man and a suspected burglar, in the arm, police said.The two alleged robbers took a small amount of cash and jewelry with them and left the apartment, heading south on 206th Street before they fled in a car, 111th Precinct Detective Edward Keevan said.When police responded to Paolicelli's emergency call, they discovered seven ounces of marijuana in a bag, a stolen and defaced .38 handgun, a M-15 assault rifle, a 9-mm handgun, a .44 handgun, and up to 500 rounds of various ammunition in his apartment, along with several daggers, Keevan said. Paolicelli, a 24-year-old native of Williston Park, L.I., is now facing 10 counts of criminal possession of weapons, criminal possession of stolen property, criminal possession of drug paraphernalia as well as criminal possession of marijuana, the 111th Precinct said.After police issued a bulletin with descriptions of the suspects to area hospitals, Solis was found at New York Westchester Square Medical Center in the Bronx with a bullet wound to his right forearm, police said. He is also facing 10 counts of robbery, burglary, assault, and criminal possession of burglary tools, Keevan said. The detective said Solis had served 17 years in prison for manslaughter, but was released a year and a half ago.While Paolicelli did not know his attackers, police said his role as an independent drug dealer may have marked him as a robbery target.”They probably saw that he had a big screen TV, they saw that he's got money,” Keevan said. “Maybe somebody in a club or a bar bought drugs from him and took notice.”Neighbors said Paolicelli had lived in the immaculate two-family house's upstairs apartment for about a year with his girlfriend and had frequent visitors.”There was traffic in and out at all hours of the night,” said one 27th Avenue resident, who declined to give her name.The home is owned by Vincenza Polito, who bought the house in 1997, according to city records. A woman standing outside of the house Friday afternoon and identified by neighbors as Polito declined to comment.Neighbors said Polito lived in the basement and first floor of the house and rented the top floor to at least a couple of different tenants.Bayside is considered one of the safest neighborhoods in the city with only one homicide reported in the 111th Precinct last year and none so far this year.But local residents said the area's security was undermined by landlords who rent out apartments without running an adequate background check.”I'm concerned when people turn a one-family (home) into a four-family. You have to really watch who you rent to,” a neighbor said. “You want safety. That's why you live in Bayside.”The search for the second suspect was ongoing, according to police. Authorities were looking for a Hispanic man wearing a blue construction hat, blue jeans and a forest green shirt, armed with a black revolver, in connection with the shooting, according to the Breaking News Network.Reach reporter Sophia Chang by e-mail at news@timesledger.com, or by phone at 718-229-0300, Ext. 146.
