Apr 7, 2016 1 min read Bensonhurst

Ex-Con From Bensonhurst Is Suspect In Fatal Sunset Park Carjacking

24-year-old Joshua Colon was arrested in an incident on Monday which led to the death of local business owner Phil Dellegrazie. (Image via NYPD)

A local criminal with a lengthy rap sheet has been accused in Monday’s carjacking in Sunset Park, which left a beloved father and business owner dead and a community shaken.

DNAinfo reports that 24-year-old Josua Colon, a resident of Bensonhurst, was released from prison just 12 days before his fatal encounter with the iron works business owner:

Joshua Colon, 24, who’s been arrested about 30 times and spent half of 2014 in prison, was arrested Monday after he stole 63-year-old Phil Dellegrazie’s truck from outside his Sunset Park ironworks and then ran him over, killing him, officials said.

Colon has committed a string of carjackings and other crimes beginning in 2013, according to Brooklyn prosecutors and incarceration records.

carjacking on 4th Avenue Phil Dellegrazie, who opened A & D Iron Works approximately 45 years ago, was beloved for his generosity by many neighbors. (Photo by Donny Levit / Park Slope Stoop) — Phil Dellegrazie, who opened A & D Iron Works approximately 45 years ago, was beloved for his generosity by many neighbors. (Photo by Donny Levit / Park Slope Stoop)

Our sister site Park Slope Stoop spoke to neighbors and friends of Dellegrazi yesterday who remembered the man as a loving father and generous man who would “give you the shirt off his back.”

Neighbor Tony Santana said he has known Dellegrazie for 25 years.

“You see all of those gates across the street over there? Phil worked on all of them. He’s done so much for the neighborhood,” he told The Stoop.

Read more coverage from The Stoop here and here.