Officials: Man tried to kill landlord

A tenant being forced to move out of a Roosevelt home in foreclosure tried to kill his landlord Tuesday afternoon, shooting and pistol-whipping him as they argued over the eviction, authorities said Wednesday.

The landlord, Anthony Diaz, 28, managed to escape the home, at 41 Bauer Ave., and Nassau County police arrested the tenant, ex-con Joseph Burno, 41, a few minutes after the 2:45 p.m. shooting, on charges including assault, criminal weapon possession and attempted murder, officials said.

Burno, 41, did not enter a plea Wednesday at First District Court in Hempstead, where Judge Helen Voutsinas ordered him jailed without bail.

Diaz said the home lapsed into foreclosure after rising taxes meant he could no longer afford mortgage payments.

Tuesday, the men were in the home, police said. Burno warned Diaz, according to court records: "If you go downstairs and touch the boiler, you are not going to make it out alive."

Diaz said he hadn't gone downstairs when Burno began shooting at close range, according to records.

"I opened the door to the basement. He opened fire," said Diaz, who was struck once in the left arm.

In a struggle that followed, Burno pistol-whipped Diaz and pointed the Beretta semiautomatic handgun and shot at Diaz's head, "narrowly" missing, police said.

Diaz said before the eviction, the two had been close friends, watching each other's children, sharing cars and more.

But things soured soon after Diaz mentioned the eviction.

Burno's cousin Dexter Alston, 43, of Queens, who came to the arraignment, said his cousin was frustrated over having to leave, the utilities being shut off, and what Burno viewed as a too-short amount of notice to move.

Diaz concedes that he shut off the utilities earlier this month but said he did so to protect a home he assumed would soon be vacant. He said he'd given Burno notice in March that they had to leave the house, a one-story cape.

Burno, a truck driver, served nine years in state prison on a manslaughter charge. He was paroled in July 1999.

Diaz, released Wednesday from Nassau University Medical Center, is in his new home in the Bronx. "Thank God I'm alive," he said.