Moments before a groom-to-be was knifed outside a Staten Island eatery, the restaurant’s furious manager tried to shoot into the crowd because somebody had urinated near the door, friends of the deceased said.
“He pulled a gun on us out of nowhere,” said Jonathan Mizzi, 27, a childhood friend of victim Anthony Lacertosa.
Mizzi, who was with Lacertosa during the fatal Saturday morning melee outside the Espana late-night spot in Annadale, said of manager Ridi Zeneli, “He pulled the trigger, and the gun jammed.
“He went to cock it back again, and a bullet dropped out of the top. He went to pull the trigger again, and that’s when Anthony saved my life. Anthony attacked him.”
But in the fight, someone, believed to be a kitchen worker at Espana, stabbed Lacertosa, 27, with a butcher knife right in front of his horrified fiancée. That man is still being sought by cops.
Zeneli turned himself in for police questioning hours later and was released.
His lawyer, Maria Guastella, did not return requests for comment, and a woman at the door of his home declined to talk.
Law-enforcement sources confirmed that a gun was recovered at the scene and said witnesses have told police about Zeneli allegedly pulling a gun.
But an acquaintance of Zeneli’s said, “This is out of character of him. It either had to be an act of self-defense or an accident. He’s normally a nice, calm guy.”
Lacertosa’s distraught mother visited the scene of her son’s death yesterday evening, sobbing, “Please, please, please!” and then collapsing to the ground.
“Anthony would give you the shirt off his back,’’ Mizzi said. “He supported his three brothers and three sisters. He was a saint and did everything for anybody.”
Lacertosa and fiancée Bridgette Schneider, 24, had arrived at Espana around midnight with a dozen friends and family members in tow. Earlier in the night, they celebrated their engagement after eight years of dating, at Ariana’s, a Charleston catering hall.
Then, sometime around 2 a.m. Lacertosa’s entourage was outside Espana smoking cigarettes and saying their goodbyes.
Lacertosa had arranged for a limousine service to take everyone home, his friends said.
They disputed earlier claims that they’d been kicked out for rowdiness but conceded at least one of Lacertosa’s brothers relieved himself outside the club.
That’s when Zeneli, 41, and a second, knife-wielding restaurant worker allegedly confronted the group, said Mizzi and another witness who asked not to be named.
“[Ridi] seemed whipped up,” the second witness said. “He came out . . . like a tough guy.”
Moments later, the stabbed Lacertosa was on the ground in blood as his fiancée desperately tried to perform mouth-to-mouth resuscitation and friends struggled to stanch the wound with kitchen linens.
Mizzi was arrested for allegedly interfering with responding cops and released.
Lacertosa’s funeral service is scheduled for Thursday at St. Thomas The Apostle Church in Staten Island.
Additional reporting by Reuven Fenton and Doug Auer