An off-duty mailman shot two drug-addled neighbors in a Harlem housing project yesterday before killing himself in front of his parents as cops came to his door, authorities said.
Roberto Caballero, 48, fired a single bullet through Thomas Braxton’s head and grazed Vincent Rolle’s head before chasing Rolle up three flights of stairs and shooting him twice more in the chest, cops said.
When officers arrived at the Manhattanville Houses at 1430 Amsterdam Ave. at around 6 a.m., neighbors told them the man they were looking for lived in apartment 10E.
As the officers got to the apartment door, they pulled Caballero’s father aside and were trying to get his 71-year-old mother out of the apartment when Caballero fired a single shot from a .38-caliber handgun up through his chin.
He was declared dead at the scene. Rolle, 48, who lives in the same building, and Braxton, 27, who is homeless but grew up in the project, were listed in critical condition.
Police would say only that the shooting stemmed from a dispute. Neighbors, however, said Rolle and Braxton may have tried to rob Caballero’s mother at some point and that Caballero was looking for retribution.
But Rolle’s sister, Rena, said her brother told her the men were smoking crack cocaine together and Caballero gave them money to buy more drugs, but they stole it.
When Caballero caught up with them later and realized they had smoked away his drug money, he went to get a gun.
Cops said the found several weapons in the apartment, including two 9 mm machine-gun pistols, two .45 semi-automatics and a shotgun.
Rolle’s mother, Janie, discounted the robbery theory because “my son is not the kind of guy that will go out there and hit an old woman.”
Vincent Rolle, however, has a lengthy rap sheet with four stretches for drug-selling and robbery.
Additional reporting by Gemma Jones and Perry Chiaramonte