The family of a motorcycle gang leader who was executed in broad daylight on a Bronx street over the weekend by two assassins carrying guns with silencers are speaking out, demanding that the killers be brought to justice.
Photos shared by the wife and daughter of Francisco Rosado, 51, on social media show a man with a shaved head and a face completely covered in tattoos.
But according to his wife Jeannie Rosado and daughter Amanda, beneath his tough exterior, the head of The Bronx chapter of the much-feared Pagan’s Motorcycle Club was a loving family man with ‘a heart of gold.’
Rosado was standing in a parking lot on Hollard Avenue near Boston Road in the Allerton section of The Bronx at around 3.20pm on Saturday talking to some people when he was accosted by a pair of armed masked suspects and shot dead.
Surveillance video captured the moment the killers jumped out of a blue Jeep Cherokee and ran with their silencer-topped guns drawn toward Rosado standing out of the frame. The footage did not show the victim getting hit.
In an interview with the New York Daily News, Jeannie Rosado said she and her entire family, including her and Francisco’s three grown children and five grandchildren, are devastated by his death.
‘He had a short temper, but a heart of gold,’ the widow told the newspaper of her partner of 27 years. ‘He was a hard-working man who provided for many people.’
Rosado worked as a building superintendent in Allerton, and in his free time ran the Pagan’s club in The Bronx – one of four major outlaw biker gangs in the US that has been linked to the production and smuggling of drugs.
Jeannie Rosado told the News that he had never been in any serious trouble with the law beyond the occasional fight.
The widowed mother-of-three expressed hope that her husband’s killers would be tracked down.
‘I pray every night they are brought to justice,’ she said. ‘I know my God will not fail me on that.’
A day after her father’s death, Amanda shared a heartwarming photo of her heavily tattooed dad cradling in his arms her two young sons.
In a press release to DailyMail.com, NYPD detectives said officers responding to a 911 call about a male shot arrived to find the victim unconscious and unresponsive before medics declared him dead on the scene.
Detectives did not disclose the victim’s identity, but sources confirmed to the New York Post that it was Rosado.
Photos taken at the scene by a DailyMail.com photographer showed a massive police presence around a body covered with a white sheet – as well as people consoling each other.
Medics were seen loading a woman into an ambulance, but it is unclear how she was involved in the incident.
Bystanders said that she may be a relative of Rosado and that she had collapsed at the scene.
The Pagan Motorcycle Club has more than 1,300 members across at least 100 chapters in several states along the East Coast.
The gang has been linked to the production and smuggling of meth, cocaine, heroin and PCP and is also believed to have deep ties to organized crime.
The Pagans are one of four major outlaw motorcycle gangs in the US – with rivals being the Hells Angels, the Bandidos and the Outlaws.
Rosado’s murder has sparked fears among law enforcement that a gang war could be brewing, should his assailants be linked to a rival group.
Law enforcement officials have speculated that the hit could be linked to the Pagans’ aggressive expansion efforts in New Jersey, where the bike gang now has 17 clubs, or its long-standing feud with Hells Angels, reported Bronx Justice News.
The Angels had recently moved their headquarters from Manhattan to The Bronx, which traditionally has been the Pagans’ sphere of influence.
