The 37-year-old man, who was identified by police as Napoleon “Nappy” Andrade, was well-known on the street. Andrade had a violent record that included a home invasion and robbery of an elderly associate of the Gambino crime family, one of the “Five Families” of organized crime in New York.

Andrade was a large and powerfully built man, his friends said. He was strong enough to bench-press more than 400 pounds, as captured in a video on YouTube, and known as a fighter.

Andrade served time for drug trafficking, money laundering, theft of government property and federal firearm violations. While in prison in 2014, Andrade was sentenced for his role in a home invasion and robbery in 2010 of a 78-year-old man in Connecticut who was an associate of the Gambino crime family.

According to court records, the crime was planned in a dispute over a loansharking debt that grew to more than $300,000. Prosecutors said that Andrade and two other men broke into the home, blindfolded the victim and stole $200,000 worth of jewelry, more than $16,000 and a double-barreled shotgun.

Other court documents claimed that Andrade was the target of a drug trafficking investigation involving federal, state and local authorities. Andrade was also investigated for a number of unsolved homicides; an informant wearing a wire caught him saying “I smoked people,” according to court records.

Assistant U.S. Attorney Gerard Sullivan called Andrade “a career criminal and a brutal man” during his sentencing at U.S. District Court in 2014 for his role in the home invasion.