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Rocco A. Maniscalco Jr. would have celebrated his 39th birthday Sunday. Instead, family and friends remembered his life Saturday and sought justice for the father of four who was murdered.
“We want justice Big Rock,” read one sign affixed to a telephone pole outside the home Maniscalco shared with wife Danielle and four kids: Krista, 16, Rocco III, 13, Gianna, 8, and Jenna, 4. Five candles were lit beneath the signed posters. Birthday cards from the kids hung from the porch. Another sign that adorned a street sign read, “Justice 4 Rocky.”
This marked the first time the family spoke out about Rocco, a 6-foot-4, 275-pound all-around friendly guy.
“He was my favorite,” Rocco’s aunt Emma DiBono said noting all the times he had helped her.
“He was good to too many people,” DiBono, of the 2700 block of Sheridan Street, said while holding back tears. “That was his problem.”
Family and friends were generous in his honor chipping in $5,000 for a reward that will be administered by the Citizens Crime Commission to someone who provides information leading to the shooter’s arrest and conviction.
“It’s just trying to get everyone’s attention,” Danielle said at Saturday’s candlelight vigil. “Maybe the neighbors saw something.”
Her husband was gunned down and killed outside the family’s home on the 1700 block of Wolf Street at 1:04 a.m. June 10. The Maniscalcos enjoyed a home-cooked meal of Rocco’s favorite — gravy, spare ribs, meatballs and ravioli — hours before his death. The couple, who would have been married 15 years next month, decided to stay nearby, have a few drinks and watch the Flyers game less than a block away at the Wolf Street Café, 1636 Wolf St. He was on the phone all night, but that wasn’t unusual, his wife said.
“He had left,” she said. “He told me to finish the beer and go home.”
Ten minutes passed when she heard gunshots outside her home. Her son looked out the window and saw him lying on the ground.
The shooter was described as white, thin, wearing a white T-shirt and driving a dark-colored SUV.
“He was a coward,” Rocco’s mother Lidia Riccobene said the shooter. “[He] shot him in the back four times. … He took away from the kids. The man who did this doesn’t know what he did to them.”
His death has been especially rough on the youngest, who got her father a black teddy bear for his birthday last year.
“When she went to bed, she said, ‘dad, could I sleep with him?’” Danielle said.
She would return the bear first thing in the morning. Now the bear is located on top of Rocco’s urn. While Jenna talks to the bear, she leaves it with her father now, she said.
“We all want closure, but I need it for my kids,” Danielle said. “That’s my concern, my kids.”
Since his death, Danielle has been spread thin, driving all four kids to all their extracurricular activities and trying to continue traditions they had with their father.
“There’s so much that he was supposed to be a part of,” Danielle said.
Rocco, a native of Seventh Street and Oregon Avenue and the youngest of three, owned a towing company, New Era Collision, 2501 Wharton St., Building Q, which was thriving, his mother said. Now without her son, she feels empty.
“I feel like I’m dead,” his mother of Mildred and Shunk streets said. “One day I’ll be with him again.”
To report information, call Citizens Crime Commission’s tip line at 215-546-TIPS (8477). SPR
Contact Managing Editor Amanda L. Snyder at asnyder@southphillyreview.com or ext. 117.
Also in this week’s Police Report:
Gun battle
Jackpot taken
Shots averted
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