I found this article with DeNiro's remarks on this:
Protege's downward spiral stuns De Niro
BY JESS WISLOSKI and DEREK ROSE
DAILY NEWS WRITERS
Actor Robert De Niro expressed shock yesterday that the one-time protege he plucked from obscurity and gave a starring movie role is suspected in the murder of a cop.
Lillo Brancato made his movie debut 12 years ago opposite De Niro, went on to a role in "The Sopranos" and once performed with former Mayor Rudy Giuliani.
"This is deeply disturbing news, a tragedy beyond comprehension," De Niro said yesterday. "I join others in extending my deepest sympathy to Officer \[Daniel\] Enchautegui's family.
"The sense of loss is one we all feel."
De Niro, who directed and starred in the 1993 film "A Bronx Tale," cast a previously unknown 17-year-old Brancato to play his son.
Brancato used his role in the movie to woo Yonkers beauty Stefanie Armento - the daughter of his .accused murder accomplice Steven Armento, her mother told the Daily News.
"He would tell her, 'I was in "A Bronx Tale." I can show you what life is like,' " said Donna Nelson, Stefanie's mother and Steven Armento's ex-wife.
"She can't help but be in love with him."
But the Fordham University premed student soon realized Brancato was slipping into a life of drugs and broke up with him after six months, Nelson said.
Brancato, however, apparently wouldn't take "no" for an answer. Stefanie Armento, 20, changed her cell phone three times amid his persistence, the mom said.
Last week, he threw a lighted cigarette in Stephanie's face, the mother added. Despite the turmoil, Steven Armento, 48, remained buddies with the actor. "Steven and Lillo were two of a kind with partying and drugs," Nelson said.
Brancato, born in Colombia but adopted and raised by Italian-American parents in Yonkers, had been in a heroin spiral for the past four years, to the dismay of his family, sources said.
In one of his last acting gigs, Brancato played former U.S. Senate candidate Rick Lazio in a 2001 "Inner Circle" City Hall press spoof with Giuliani.
"At the time, obviously we had no idea he would be accused of such a horrendous crime," said Giuliani spokesman Sunny Mindel. "The mayor extends his sympathy to Officer Enchautegui's entire family. The city has lost a fine officer."
Friends said Brancato had been planning to enter a drug treatment program this week - and then move to Los .Angeles to focus on his acting career.
Family members said cops wouldn't let them see the actor at the hospital. "They should at least let my parents in there," Brancato's brother Vincent said. "God forbid he dies."
DeNiro\'s Comments TIS
