Son Anthony Zottola put the hit on Sally Daz, brother: feds
CSI enters the Zottola compound on Wednesday, June 11, 2018 after Salvatore Zottola was ambushed. File Photo
Prospect Ave. co-named in honor of Emmanuel Mensah
BRONX TIMES REPORTER, J BTR UNE 21-27, 2019 3
BY PATRICK ROCCHIO
A true American hero
who lost his life saving his
neighbors was immortalized
with a street co-naming in
his honor.
U.S. Army Private First
Class Emmanuel Mensah,
who is credited with running
back into a burning apartment
building on Prospect
Avenue four times to save
neighbors before perishing
in the 2017 fi re, was honored
on Friday, June 14.
The co-naming occurred
at the corner of Prospect Avenue
and East 187th Street in
Fordham, just steps from the
scene of heroism, with Mensah’s
family and friends, including
his dad Kwabena
Mensah.
They assembled to remember
the young man’s life and
receive the honorary street
sign proclaiming that part of
Prospect Avenue ‘Emmanuel
Mensah Way’.
Mensah had arrived in
America from Ghana just fi ve
years before the fi re, and was
visiting home for the fi rst
time attending boot camp.
He was in the U.S. Army Na-
tional Guard.
Councilman Ritchie Torres,
who carried the street
sign legislation through the
NYC City Council, said that
Mensah was Belmont’s bravest
and that he thought that
the street named in his honor
was the most appropriate conaming
he’s ever done.
“He is a national hero and
it is not often that we have an
occasion to rename a street
after a genuine American
hero who went knowingly
into a burning building to
sacrifi ce his own life to save
others,” said Torres. “Even
though he didn’t die on the
battlefi eld, he had a soldier’s
bravery.”
The councilman said that
Mensah’s life is a testament
to the virtue of immigration.
Mensah saved the lives
of four people before the fi re
claimed his own.
Mensah’s uncle Trum
Breda said that the family is
greatly honored by the street
naming.
“What the city has done for
our son is incredible,” said
Breda, adding “Though we
feel the loss this alone has assured
us that if you lay down
your life for a good cause, you
will be rewarded.”
The fi re was the city’s
deadliest in the city in a
quarter century.
The December 28, 2017
blaze at 2363 Prospect Avenue
claimed 13 lives.
The fi re is believed to have
stemmed from a young child
turning on a stove.
This led to legislation that
mandated distribution of
safety knobs that are more
diffi cult for youngsters to activate,
said the councilman.
Present at the event were
some survivors of the fi re,
including survivor Christine
Batiz, who lost both her
mother, Maria Batiz and her
daughter Amora Vidal in the
blaze.
Batiz said that the scene
overwhelmed her, recalling a
fi nal phone conversation she
had with her mom before fi re
engulfed the building.
She said that Mensah had
a chance at life and used it to
save others.
Cynthia Bryant was more
Private Mensah’s father, Kwabena, and Councilman Ritchie Torres.
Continued on page 71 Photo by Silvio Pacifi co
BY ALEX MITCHELL
A shocking twist was revealed
in the murder case of
beloved, neighborhood fi gure,
71-year-old Sylvester ‘Sally
Daz’ Zottola and the attempted
murder of his son, Salvatore,
who was 41 at the time.
Police arrested Sally Daz’s
41-year-old son, Anthony Zottola,
Sr. and four others on
murder-for-hire conspiracy
and related charges in Larchmont,
NY on Tuesday, June 18.
Police believe that Anthony
was trying to take
over his father’s video game
business, DAZ Amusements,
which included the lucrative
Joker Poker machines. Salvatore
worked with his dad
installing and repairing juke
boxes and other electronic
and digital machines that
were located in bars, restaurants
and private clubs.
“As alleged, Zottola Sr. set
in motion a deadly plot to kill
his father and brother, with
Bloods gang members carrying
out extreme acts of violence
to collect a payoff for the
hits,” stated United States Attorney
Richard P. Donoghue,
who’s prosecuting the case.
The accused Bloods mem-
ber in charge of the hit was
Brooklyn ex-con Bushawn
‘Shelz’ Shelton, according to
police. He was picked up just a
month after the fatal shooting
at a Webster Avenue McDonald’s
restaurant drive thru
line on Thursday, October 4.
During the planning of the
murder, Zotolla, Sr., Shelton
and others referred to the premeditated
hit as a movie they
were producing. He used code
language such as “the fi lming”
and the “fi nal scene,”
with his father as “the actor”
and the hit man as “the director”
in text message conversations
with Shelton during
previous botched hits on the
father and son, according to
the Eastern District Court.
Continued on page 71