A reputed mobster — whose son was injured during an attempted hit job three months ago — was blasted to death at a McDonald’s drive-thru in the Bronx while waiting for a cup of coffee on Thursday, sources said.
Sylvester Zottola, 71, a Bonanno crime family associate, was shot in the head, chest and shoulder while sitting in his car outside the fast food restaurant at Webster Avenue and Belmont Street around 4:45 p.m., according to law enforcement sources.
Zottola had ordered a medium coffee at the drive-thru and his car was boxed in when the gunman opened fire, the sources said.
Zottola had been roughed up three times in the past year. His son, 41-year-old Salvatore Zottola, was injured when a gunman opened fire on him outside his Bronx home July 11.
The July shooting was captured on surveillance video, but the younger Zottola did not cooperate with authorities and no arrests were made, sources said.
Investigators believe the attack on Salvatore Zottola was intended to be a message to his father, who received his own share of attempted assaults.
In September 2017, the elder Zottola was walking near his Bronx home when an assailant clubbed him over the head, sources said.
Two months later, a gun-wielding thug tried unsuccessfully to force Sylvester Zottola into a car at Meagher Avenue and the Throgs Neck Expressway, sources added.
The most vicious run-in came on a late December night when Sylvester Zottola walked in on three burglars ransacking his home.
One burglar pulled a knife and stabbed Zottola in the neck, putting him in critical condition in Jacobi Medical Center.
No arrests had been made Thursday evening in Zottola’s slaying.
Police described the gunman as a black man wearing a black hooded sweatshirt and dark-colored pans.
Investigators did an extensive sweep of the area for surveillance video of the shooting.