Joseph Leone Jr.

A journey to help an estranged parent ended in tragedy on New Year’s Eve of 2021 for Joseph Leone Jr., a 29-year-old white male. The U.S. Army veteran and father of three had traveled from his home in South Carolina to Staten Island, New York, to care for his father, Joseph Leone Sr., who was struggling with alcoholism after a recent fall. The visit culminated in a fatal confrontation on a sidewalk outside the elder Leone’s Rosebank home.

The relationship between father and son had long been fraught with difficulty. According to Kimberly Leone, the victim’s wife, Joseph Jr. had endured an abusive childhood and was determined to be a better father to his own three children. Despite this painful history, he felt a duty to help when his father called. Kimberly recounted that her husband had recently overcome his own struggles with substance abuse and wanted to support his father’s recovery, telling her, "I’ll have to go up there and help my daddy recover from alcohol like you helped me to recover from drugs."

On the evening of December 31, 2021, police responded to a 911 call reporting a shooting on Bay Street just before 7:30 p.m. Officers arrived to find Joseph Leone Jr. unconscious on the sidewalk with a shotgun wound to his chest. He was transported to Staten Island University Hospital, where he was pronounced dead.

His 57-year-old father, Joseph Leone Sr., was at the scene and was taken into custody. According to a criminal complaint, he admitted to the shooting, telling officers, "That shotgun in the garbage can — that's the one I shot him with." Investigators recovered two shotguns and ammunition from the residence. The elder Leone, a U.S. Marine veteran with no prior criminal record, was arrested and initially charged with murder, manslaughter, and criminal possession of a weapon.

The case took a significant turn in January 2022 when it was presented to a Staten Island grand jury. Joseph Leone Sr. claimed he had acted in self-defense, stating that he fired his shotgun only after his son, who was reportedly acting erratically while withdrawing from drugs, pointed a handgun at him. Police confirmed they recovered a handgun at the scene. After reviewing the evidence, the grand jury declined to indict Leone Sr. on murder or manslaughter charges. His attorney called it a "clear case of self-defense." The grand jury did, however, indict him on misdemeanor charges for unlawful possession of firearms and ammunition. As of January 2022, the homicide investigation was closed, with Leone Sr. facing only the lesser weapons violations.