Metro

Family, friends mourn biz star killed in shooting

Steven Ercolino had it all — he was attractive, fit and a rising star at a Midtown clothing company where he was adored by colleagues and always enjoyed going to work.

He was vice president of sales at Hazan Import Company, and responsible for marketing accessories designed by co-workers, once including his killer, Jeffrey Johnson.

“My son was a loving son, a great son, and a great uncle, and we are grieving very badly,” said his heartbroken father, Frank Ercolino.

“He was a great guy, very loving, caring very friendly, a good worker,” said Irene Timan, 35, a Hazan saleswoman who was chatting with Ercolino outside their offices when Johnson walked up and shot him in the head.

Ercolino “was funny, he was very fit. He went to the gym,” said Timan.

Ercolino’s MySpace profile shows a fun-loving bachelor who liked to party and was always surrounded by sexy women.

On his online profile Ercolino said he loves the Mets and the Jets, and also revealed that he was a history buff.

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“He had a preppy, ladies-man, Tom Cruise-kind of look,” said Eddie Valentin, 62, a security guard at a nearby building.

Valentin said Ercolino, 41, “seemed like a nice, friendly guy. He always waved and said ‘Hi.’ Always had a smile.”

Anthony Collins, a 22-year-old security worker at 10 W. 33rd St., where Hazan’s offices are located, said Ercolino cut an impressive figure.

“I noticed his attire,” Collins said. “He was well built, wore very nice clothes, nice shirts, very businesslike. He liked to wear cowboy boots, very nice shoes.”

A 1992 grad of SUNY Oneonta — where he studied business with a concentration in fashion — Ercolino worked in sales at several clothing companies before landing at Hazan in December 2005.

“He was a great guy, he was a terrific guy,” said college buddy Anthony Carrara, 42, who started the Beta Chi fraternity with Ercolino at Oneonta.

Carrara even saw Ercolino at a fraternity reunion several years ago and said he seemed to be” successful, doing very well.”

But Ercolino was murdered before he could fully climb the corporate ladder — cut down by Johnson just steps from the office they once shared.

Last night he was honored by his saddened colleagues at his favorite watering hole near work.

“It’s hit everybody hard,” said a distraught woman at Foley’s, across the street from the Empire State Building where Ercolino had been a regular. “It’s a terrible shock. “All of us are traumatized. I’m having a drink for Steve.”

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Frank Ercolino and wife Rosalie, live in upstate Warwick, Orange County, where neighbors fondly recalled Steven.

“I saw Steve many times at the gym,” said neighbor Sherrie DeBergh. “He was in such great shape. Young, attractive, a successful businessman.”

“He had it all,” she said.

Additional reporting by Bill Sanderson and Georgett Roberts




dan.mangan@nypost.com