Ex-con killed in Staten Island gunfight as namesake son faces charges in two gang killings
The apple didn’t fall far from the family tree.
A 53-year-old ex-convict killed and then robbed of his gun in a Staten Island shootout was the dad of a notorious borough gangbanger known as “Tragedy” — who remains behind bars in connection with a pair of homicides last year, the Daily News has learned.
A law enforcement source indicated investigators were looking into the death of John Pena Sr. and possible links to his namesake son’s pending cases.
The elder Pena was standing outside the Stapleton Houses on Broad St. when two men walked up and began arguing with him around 5:30 p.m. Monday, said police sources.
Moments later, one of his adversaries pulled a gun and opened fire, witnesses told police. Pena pulled his own gun and started shooting before he was hit in the upper chest, with the two attackers scooping up the dying man’s weapon as he collapsed to the ground, police sources said.
Pena was pronounced dead at Richmond University Medical Center, with no arrests yet made.
His 31-year-old son, reputedly the boss of the local Bloods-affiliated “Gorilla Stone Mafia” gang, was behind bars for a pair of homicides — including the June 2021 shooting of a Staten Island man killed while sleeping alongside his girlfriend, officials said.
Authorities say the younger Pena broke into the home of Francisco Gonzalez just one month after the victim’s release from prison, the Staten Island Advance reported. The helpless man was shot three times in the head, according to prosecutors, and Pena was arrested a day later.
The second fatal shooting happened three months earlier, when Pena Jr. allegedly gunned down a gang member visiting a street memorial to a slain former associate behind the Stapleton Houses. Federal prosecutors in that case indicated video evidence showed Pena Jr. committing the crime, although he was charged only as a felon in possession of ammunition, according to the Advance.
The father was killed on the same block where his son allegedly pumped 18 bullets into Mark Bajandas, 23, in March 2021. The younger Pena was also previously convicted in the brutal 2012 beatdown of a man in Stapleton.
The elder Pena’s ex-wife told The News there was no connection between the death of the father and their son.
“I don’t know about the situation or none of that,” said the ex, Venus Colly More-Bey-Pena Lighty. “I think he was just coming out here going to the store and that happened to him.”
Pena Sr. stayed in contact with his son, providing money for his lawyers, attending his hearings and staying in touch via phone, she said.
He had five kids and was “very dedicated” to all of them, she added.
“He’s a godfather to many kids,” Lighty said. “I couldn’t imagine him doing a bad thing to nobody. He wouldn’t harm nobody. He loved kids.”
A neighbor reported the father was at the ex-wife’s home on Monday afternoon, passing along a message from their son.
Pena Sr. was a regular customer at nearby Green Apple Deli, according to a clerk there who gave his name only as Abdul.
“Very nice man,” said Abdul. “He was a good guy. He goes about his business. He didn’t bother nobody. He could have been in the wrong place, wrong time.”
Pena Sr.’s last known address was in Philadelphia, but he had relatives in Staten Island. His rap sheet included multiple arrests in New York City for gun possession, drug possession and assault.
In 1993, he was sentenced to two years in prison for a robbery he committed in Manhattan. He was paroled in 1995, court records show.
Stapleton Houses resident Harold Kelly, 65, said he heard what sounded like firecrackers Monday night.
“It wasn’t until an hour later that I came downstairs and discovered a whole plethora of police lights,” he recalled. “And then I realized something was definitely happening.”
