The serial killer known as “Son of Sal” has been sentenced to 75 years to life behind bars after being found guilty of three counts of second-degree murder for the shooting deaths of three Brooklyn shopkeepers in 2012, according to District Attorney Ken Thompson’s office.
As this paper previously reported, Salvatore Perrone — a Bensonhurst native, who had moved to Staten Island — shot his first victim, Mohamed Gebeli, in the neck inside of his store – Valentino’s Fashion in Bay Ridge on July 6, 2012. Isaac Kadare, Perrone’s second victim, was also shot in his store, Amazing 99 Cent Deals and Up, in Bensonhurst on August 2, 2012. The final victim, Rahmatollah Vahidipour, was gunned down in his Flatbush business, She She Boutique, on November 16, 2012.
All three men ran family-owned businesses and were shot with the same .22 caliber gun, just before closing time.
“It’s hard to think of anyone who deserves to spend the rest of his life in prison more than this cold-blooded and unrepentant serial killer,” said Thompson. “He murdered three innocent, honest and hard-working business owners and then spent years acting up in court to delay the fate he received today. I hope his life sentence will bring some comfort to the victims’ families who have suffered so much loss and grief.”
According to reports, Perrone – who, after several psychiatric evaluations, was deemed fit to stand trial but unfit to represent himself in May of last year – was not present for the verdict reading, as he had been thrown out of the courtroom earlier for a disorderly outburst.
Just weeks before his May, 2015 hearing, Perrone called this newspaper from the Kirby Psychiatric Center on Wards Island, where he had been confined since being declared unfit to stand trial in December, 2014.
In a rambling statement, Perrone contended that there had been, “Threats and intimidation of all defense witnesses,” as well as that, “There is evidence that will show that I was elsewhere when the three crimes took place.” He also repeatedly contended that the judge’s signature on the search warrant that turned up evidence being used against him was “forged.” He learned this, he asserted, because “someone provided me with inside information.”
That evidence connecting Perrone to the crimes, discovered at an apartment in Midwood where he frequently stayed, included a duffle bag that had a .22-caliber rifle inside it that ballistics experts have tied to spent shells found at the three crime scenes, as well as a knife covered in blood stains that matched Kadare. Blood stains that matched Vahidipour were found on the bag itself.
Prior to Perrone’s November, 2012 arrest, the NYPD had released videos of someone cops dubbed John Doe Duffle Bag who had been caught on surveillance video just after 6 p.m. on the day of the third murder at two locations near the crime scene.
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