A Flushing man was crushed to death by a tree that crashed into his home Monday night during Hurricane Sandy, police said.
Tony Laino, 29, was pinned in his bedroom at around 7 p.m. on October 29, police said.
The tree ripped through the upper left portion of the two-story home at 47-34 166th Street, according to neighbors.
“The mother came outside screaming,” said Howard Senior, who lives across the street. “There were trucks, lights, all sorts of emergency vehicles. It was a mob scene. Somebody went upstairs, but there was no noise from the room. They didn’t hear a thing. It just crushed him.”
Another neighbor, who did not want to give her name, said the victim’s mother ran down the street and rang her doorbell that night asking for help.
“He was just pinned underneath the tree. There was nothing that could be done,” she said. “The poor mother was helpless. It took a very long time to even try and get in there — that’s how big the tree was.”
The collapse rendered the rest of the house unstable, the neighbor said, adding that emergency responders pulled out “very quickly.”
“The winds were blowing. It was just terrifying,” she said. “It’s just a tragedy.”
Laino lived with his parents and one of two brothers, neighbors and friends said. There were no other reported injuries in the home.
A man who identified himself only as Laino’s brother wept outside the scene on Tuesday morning.
“He was an amazing person,” he said. “He always wanted to help people. He was a great man.”
Neighbors and an overwhelming outpouring of Facebook friends remembered Laino — the youngest of three brothers and a driver for Ace Party & Tent Rental — as an idol to kids on the block and a funny, cheerful person.
“Although my heart is heavy, I’ll never forget how you made me smile,” friend Deirdre Mooney posted on his Facebook wall Tuesday morning. “I hope you’re one of [the] first faces I see on the other side.”
Danielle Esposito wrote about how Laino “always made me feel happy and beautiful and endlessly made me laugh with his antics.”
“Honestly have no idea how we are going to do this,” she said.
Friend Adam Lombardi told the Courier Laino was a “go-getter, always looking to improve himself.”
“I think I speak for the entire neighborhood when I say it’s a tragic loss and he’s going to be missed,” he said.
Family and neighbors said the tragedy could have been averted. The Lainos tried time and time again to get the city to remove the towering threat, they said.
“I’ve been telling them to take this tree down for 20 f—–g years,” Laino’s brother said.
The Parks Department directed comment to the city’s joint information center, which did not immediately respond.
Senior said the tree was “too big, too dangerous” as he watched it sway during the storm.
“It’s a solid tree, but it started to rock,” he said. “I said ‘Son of a gun, that’s going to come down.’”
