A ‘gambling addict’ accused of fatally shooting the tarot card-reading mother of an NYPD cop made three confessions to the killing, prosecutors have claimed.
Giuseppe Canzani was arraigned last night over the brutal murder of Anna Torres, 51, who he allegedly shot point blank in the head in Queens, New York, yesterday.
The 41-year-old is said to have believed the psychic put a curse on him because his luck started running out.
He is being held without bail after his arraignment last night, and is due back in court on May 26.
‘The case is strong. It has video surveillance evidence, witness testimony, and the defendant’s own statements,’ Assistant District Attorney Xhulia Derhemi said in court last night.
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Giuseppe Canzani, 41, made three confessions to the killing of Anna Torres, 51, prosecution alleged at his arraignment on Thursday night
Canzani (right) pictured here with his sister Carmela. The New York Post reported that Canzani is a married father of twins
Anna Torres, 51, pictured here, the mother of an NYPD officer, was shot in her Queens home on Wednesday afternoon
At the arraignment on Thursday night, prosecutors detailed how Canzani had willingly admitted on three separate occasions that he had killed Torres.
Derhmi alleged that upon turning himself in to the 106th Precinct about an hour after the shooting, Canzani readily confessed to the killing
‘I want to turn myself in. I’m not here to hurt you guys. I’m here because of the woman I shot,’ Canzani said to one officer, according to Derhmi.
Canzani later told a lieutenant, ‘That’s the woman I shot. They tried to kill me,’ the assistant district attorney alleged.
Then Canzani said to a detective, ‘Anna told me the black chief of the NYPD wants to kill my wife. Anna is a witch,’ Derhmi said.
‘The defendant is charged with serious crimes here, the top charge being murder in the second degree. He shot the victim, then admitted to three different members of the NYPD that he shot the victim,’ Derhemi told the court.
Canzani, a married father of twins according to the New York Post, confessed to killing Torres when she answered the door to her house in the Ozone Park area on Wednesday afternoon. She did psychic readings from her home.
‘The guy had been going to her for years, and he believes she put a curse on him,’ an inside source told DailyMail.com on Thursday.
‘He’s had bad luck for the past couple weeks, including with gambling. He went to her house and shot her.’
Canzani is so large that two pairs of handcuffs were required to detain him. He is being held without bail after Thursday’s arraignment
Canzani’s defense alleged that he suffers from mental illness, including anxiety and depression. Defense requested and was granted a mental evaluation
Canzani’s defense requested and was granted a mental evaluation, claiming that the defendant suffers from mental health problems.
‘He suffers from anxiety as well as depression. He does not have his medication,’ said Kerry Katsorhis.
‘In my 50 years of practice, I say he’s a prime example of a person who should be examined psychiatrically,’ Katsorhis said.
Giuseppe Canzani, 41, (above, center) was led away from the 106th precinct in Ozone Park, Queens, by police on Thursday afternoon
Police and the DailyMail.com source said there’s no indication Canzani knew Torres’ son is a police officer.
‘There’s no connection to the son, the source said. ‘We don’t even think the guy knows the woman’s son is a cop.’
A source told the Post yesterday that when Canzani admitted to police that he shot Torres about an hour after the murder, he insisted that she was a ‘witch.’
‘If I tell you what’s going on with me you wouldn’t believe it,’ he allegedly told detectives, ‘Not for nothing, I am supposed to be dead already, that’s all I know. This woman, you guys will never understand. You would think I’m crazy.’
Surveillance footage shows Giuseppe Canzani, 41, leaving the scene of the crime with a gun in hand on Wednesday afternoon
Canzani was a longtime client of Torres, who worked as a psychic out of her Queens home
Canzani told police that Torres was a ‘witch,’ and that he killed her because he thinks she put a curse on him
The Post reported that Torres’ daughter told investigators that her mother had gotten into a fight with a client known as ‘Joey’ some time prior to the killing.
The Queens Chronicle reported that Canzani lives in Howard Beach, Queens, and is an employee of the NYC Department of Transportation. A representative of the NYC DOT told DailyMail.com that an employee named Giuseppe Canzani was suspended without pay on Thursday.
Torres died after being shot in the head in a brazen daytime ambush when she answered the door to her home.
She was shot twice on Wednesday. The suspect initially fled the scene then surrendered.
Cops say Torres and Canzani knew each other ‘to some extent,’ the Post reported, but had ruled out a romantic relationship.
Torres’ husband, David Aguilar, told reporters that he did not know the suspect.
‘Never heard that name before,’ Aguilar, told CBS New York.
‘He smashed my world,’ he said.
Aguilar said that his wife was at home taking care of her bedridden mother with her daughter-in-law when she was murdered.
‘She was the sweetest person in the world, I’m lost without her.’
He said he found out about his wife’s murder when he saw the reports on the news while he was at work.
Anna Torres’ husband, David Aguilar, broke down speaking to reporters about his wife’s murder on Thursday. ‘I’m lost without her,’ he said, and described her as ‘the sweetest person’
Aguilar told reporters that he had never heard of the suspect in his life. He said that the police have not told him anything Canzani has said about what motivated the murder
Aguilar described his wife as somebody who was loved by everyone, and said she did not have a bad bone in her body. ‘She didn’t deserve this. I wish it was me,’ he told reporters
Anna Torres (center) with her family during a 2016 birthday outing. Her husband, David Aguilar, stands behind her
Cops said the mother answered the door at her home at around 2.30 p.m. in Queens’ Ozone Park neighborhood. They said the suspect fired three shots – two of which hit Torres, with one striking her head. She was pronounced dead at the scene.
Officers said the suspect then fled in a black Chevrolet, before pulling up outside the NYPD’s 106th Precinct in the same vehicle at 3:30 p.m. – around an hour after the shooting – to hand himself in.
Surveillance footage from Torres’ street recorded at the time of the shooting shows a man with a hoodie over his face walking calmly down the sidewalk.
He carries what appears to be a silver gun in his right hand, before slipping onto the street between two cars, then entering a parked SUV and driving away.
NYPD Deputy Chief Jerry O’Sullivan told reporters at a press conference on Wednesday night that when Canzani surrendered he got out of his car and placed a 45-caliber silver firearm on the sidewalk outside the precinct, before being arrested by two NYPD officers without incident.
The deputy chief said the suspected shooter would be charged with murder and the criminal possession of a weapon.
Torres worked as a psychic at her home in Queens (above). Canzani was a client who believed she had put a curse on him, a police source tells DailyMail.com
A wreath was placed on the front door of Torres’ home in Ozone Park. She was murdered while answering the front door pictured above
A neighbor who lived across the street said he heard gunshots and then a woman screaming.
‘Right after you heard the ‘bop-bop-bop’ you heard screaming.’
‘After that I heard [a family member] calling the cops, yelling out the address.’
Friends and family shared their support and love for Torres on social media.
‘The world lost an extraordinary woman yesterday,’ Anna’s brother, Jose Torres, wrote in a Facebook post, ‘May you rest in Heavenly peace… We will all be reunited someday.’
The suspect has been named as 41-year-old Giuseppe Canzani according to the New York Post
In a briefing on Wednesday, NYPD Deputy Chief Jerry O’Sullivan told reporters that there was no reason to believe that Torres’ killing was linked to her son’s employment with the NYPD
The mother of an NYPD officer has died after being shot in the head in a daytime ambush when she answered the door to her Queens home. Pictured: The home of Anna Torres, 51, is shown in Queens taped off by yellow police tape
Cops cross through the police line on Torres’ street on Wednesday
Anna Torres, 51, was shot twice on Wednesday by a suspect who cops said has since surrendered, having initially fled the scene. She was pronounced dead at the scene. Pictured: An ambulance is seen outside of her home on Wednesday
New York City police and investigators swarmed the neighborhood after the shooting
