NEW YORK CITY — The 2014 death of a Brooklyn man has been classified a homicide after he died from a gunshot wound he suffered 35 years earlier, police and the Medical Examiner's Office said.
Anthony Defonte, 69, was found unconscious and unresponsive in his Avenue O apartment by his girlfriend Catherine Leone, 58, on Aug. 30, 2014, police said. Leone called emergency personnel who pronounced Defonte dead at the scene.
On Monday, the ME ruled the death a homicide due to 1979 shooting that left Defonte paraplegic.
In a 1988 interview about the theft of his Oldsmobile, Defonte told the New York Daily News he was an innocent bystander during the shooting at a Manhattan nightclub.
The NYPD was unable to give further information Wednesday afternoon about the circumstances surrounding the 1979 shooting.
The Manhattan District Attorney's office did not immediately comment on whether it would open a homicide investigation after the recent classification.
The ME said that Defonte died from sepsis with bronchopneumonia, a condition which could be directly traced to the gunshot wound suffered decades earlier.
