The weapon used to murder two men in a horrific Upper West Side massacre is mysteriously unaccounted for, officials said yesterday.
Cops originally believed a semi-automatic pistol recovered at the Amsterdam Avenue slay scene was used by the gunman, Hector Quinones, but ballistics tests showed otherwise, NYPD spokesman Paul Browne said last night.
Investigators now believe the killer stashed the murder weapon — thought to be the same type as the one recovered — somewhere after Thursday’s carnage or that the gun was picked up by someone.
But they still believe Quinones acted alone.
He shot Carlos Rodriguez Jr., and his father, Carlos Sr., to death in a botched drug robbery. He also slit the throat of Carlos Jr.’s 87-year- old grandfather, Fernando Gonzalez, before falling to his own death.
The black .380 caliber Hi-Point found under a bed next to a lockbox full of heroin was originally bought by a Pennsylvania gun trafficker. It was one of nine guns purchased at a shop in Blakeslee, Pa., by Adigun Nicholson, who sold them in The Bronx. Nicholson is in federal prison.