Police have taken a 24-year-old construction worker into custody for the killing of Gambino crime family boss Francesco ‘Franky Boy’ Cali.

US Marshals apprehended Anthony Comello from his Brick Township, New Jersey home on Saturday morning and he’s expected to face murder charges for the killing, NYPD announced in a press conference Saturday.

Officials initially believed the killing was related to Cali’s alleged mob ties.

But they now believe the murder was the work of a lovesick madman.

According to sources, the motive for the murder was Comello’s obsession with the reputed mob boss’ niece.

The dispute with Cali seems to have stemmed from Cali’s refusal to let Comello date his niece, who was inside the home when Cali was gunned down outside.

NBC New York quoted police sources as describing the suspect as a “conspiracy theory type” and “a bit off.”

Another source described Comello as a “complete nut.”

The killing was recorded on video by a surveillance camera outside Cali’s home. His family declined to make it available to police, who returned with a search warrant.

The video shows the gunman deliberately backing into the gangster’s parked Cadillac SUV with a pickup truck.

Cali can then be seen emerging from his home and shakes hands with the pickup truck driver. The driver then bends down and picks up a license plate, holds it out to Cali, who then puts it into the rear compartment of his SUV.

The driver then suddenly pulls a gun and starts shooting.

The NYPD initially reported that the mobster was gunned down and then run over but that is not the case.

“What happened was Mr. Cali was struck several times by gunfire. In trying to elude additional gunfire, [he] fled to the rear area of his private vehicle and somebody probably thought he was run over, but it was more he was trying to get underneath the truck to elude gunfire,” Chief of Detectives Dermott Shea told reporters at a news conference held on Thursday afternoon.

Some law enforcement eyes turned immediately to 73-year-old Gene Gotti, brother to ex-Gambino head John Gotti.

“I wonder if these tremendously insightful law enforcement individuals are going to issue an apology to Gene,” Gene’s nephew, John Gotti Jr. told the New York Post.

Junior called the theories that his uncle had anything to do with the killing as “governmental fiction and the papers are all too eager to adopt this type of story.”

Said Junior: “Today, an arrest was made. A 24-year-old individual who did it for personal reasons, not street reasons. Is somebody going to apologize to Gene and his family?”

He added: “What troubles me to the core is the simple fact that for two days the Gotti name has been put into the press for these negative reasons and it’s been done because it could be done. It’s easy…

“It bothers me because (Gene’s) family was so excited to come home … And to come home and deal with this nonsense … Geno never complained. He’s cut from his brother’s (John Gotti) cloth.”

This article was originally posted here