'Gentle Giant' held in road-rage shooting

KATHLEEN Custer learned that her son, a 6-foot-4, 275-pound former Marine and martial-arts expert, was trying to shoot himself on Monday when a distraught neighbor knocked on her door.

Her son, Christian Squillaciotti, 33, was in his bedroom in the house next to hers in South Philadelphia with a gun to his head, the neighbor told her. He asked his sister to call the cops so they could shoot him.

"He wanted them to come get him and kill him," his mother said yesterday, her voice shaking between sobs. "He wanted to die."

The cops came at 6:20 Monday night to his house on Shunk Street near 5th, and Squillaciotti surrendered while relatives consoled him.

It was around that time, Custer said, that she learned why her son was wrestling demons.

In a case of road-rage that rattled motorists across the region, Squillaciotti allegedly shot and critically injured a South Jersey man the night of Oct. 5, just after they crossed the Walt Whitman Bridge into Philadelphia.

Thomas Timko, 41, of Gloucester Township, N.J., was driving his 8-year-old daughter, Katie, to her mother's house in Norristown. He may have inadvertently cut off Squillaciotti at around 8:40 p.m. and the two men exchanged angry gestures. Timko apparently gave Squillaciotti the finger, police said.

From the driver's seat of the gray Ford pickup, Squillaciotti then fired at least four shots at Timko's 2001 Toyota Highlander, police said. Timko was struck on the side of the head, but managed to get to the side of the road where Katie got out and, by flagging down other drivers to help, may have saved her father's life. She was not injured but Timko remains in critical but stable condition at the Hospital of the University of Pennsylvania, police said.

Squillaciotti is charged with two counts of attempted murder, aggravated assault and related offenses.

Squillaciotti was at large for about a week, while police chased leads that a gray Ford pickup was seen exiting at Passyunk Avenue after the shooting. They released a photo of the truck taken from a video camera at the toll plaza. Anonymous tips led police to Squillaciotti.

"This is just such a terrible thing," Custer cried yesterday. "I'm very sorry and my son is so very sorry. Pray for this man [Timko] and pray for his daughter. And pray for my son. This isn't the man he is."

A sign in Custer's front window reads, "Proudly Supports the Philadelphia Police."

Custer said that her son had been in a terrible car accident earlier this year and hadn't been himself for months. He had been hearing voices, she said.

Meanwhile, a blanket of leaves covered the lawn at the split-level home where Timko lives with his girlfriend in the Glendora section of Gloucester Township. Neighbors said that Timko was meticulous about the lawn's appearance, and the leaves are a reminder of how long he's been gone.

"It will be nice to see his face when he comes walking back home," said next-door neighbor Chris McKeever.

McKeever said she hadn't had a chance to see Timko's girlfriend, Dawn Roccia, since the arrest.

"She goes to the hospital every day and she doesn't come back until late at night," McKeever said.

Donna DiCiano, a relative of Roccia's, said that the arrest is a small consolation.

"I'm glad, but it isn't helping him any," she said.

DiCiano, who lives a few houses down from Roccia, said that Timko was at her house just days before the shooting to fix her toilet.

"He was the nicest person you could ever meet," she said.

Squillaciotti, who had never been in trouble with the law before, confessed to detectives that he shot Timko after he gave him the finger, police sources said. Based on his statement, detectives searched several sewers near Squillaciotti's home and found pieces of a .40-caliber weapon, a police source said.

Yesterday, two plainclothes detectives retrieved part of a gun from a sewer near Lawrence and Ritner streets and a holster in a sewer at Orkney and Porter, according to Mario Scuderi, a manager at a local hardware store. Store owner Irv Bruskin said that he supplied the detectives with flashlights and a pole-like "grabber" tool from his store to aid their sewer search.

Last night, detectives were still trying to determine if the pieces they found were part of the pistol used in the shooting, a police source said.

At Squillaciotti's home, police confiscated several weapons, including a Russian-made, semiautomatic handgun, two shotguns and a World War II-vintage M1 Carbine rifle.

Squillaciotti served in the Marines from Nov. 12, 1992, to April 6, 2000. His military occupational specialty is listed as an electrical-equipment repair specialist, according to a U.S. Marine Corps spokeswoman. After leaving the Marines, Squillaciotti became a sheet-metal worker and a competitive mixed-martial-arts fighter, neighbors said. He is a super heavyweight who lists his team as the Martial Arts Lifestyle Center/World Sambo Federation.

Employees of the Martial Arts Lifestyle Center on Passyunk Avenue near Reed did not return phone calls from the Daily News.

But Matt Marsiano, an autobody technician at Billy D's Auto Body & Detailing next door, said that Squillaciotti, or "Chris" as they call him, "is a sweetheart."

"I never saw him yell or angry; he was full of smiles," said Marsiano, who believed that Squillaciotti instructed children in martial arts at the center next door.

Friends and neighbors expressed surprise that Squillaciotti allegedly would commit any crime, let alone such a heinous, senseless one. The question on their minds was, "Why?"

They described the burly, bearded and bald Squillaciotti as a "gentle giant" who liked to chat-up neighbors about everything from sports to politics.

"He talked about Obama being the best hope for the country," said neighbor Rufus Faison, 58.

Nicholas McCloskey, 30, who lives two doors away from Squillaciotti, said that he felt safe with him as a neighbor. In fact, when McCloskey went on vacation, Squillaciotti had a key to McCloskey's house and fed his cats.

"I know he would never harm anybody up this street - never," McCloskey said.

Custer said that her son had been in a terrible work-related truck accident about eight to 10 months ago and hadn't been the same since.

"He had bad seizures," she said, stifling sobs. "He was hearing voices. He didn't understand what was happening to him. He was mentally ill."

She said his wife, Chastity, who could not be reached for comment, took him twice to the VA Hospital. "He's been asking for help, but they wouldn't help him," Custer said.

Doctors pumped him full of medicines, she said, which only seemed to make him worse. "The more medicine he took, the worse he got."

"He's a good guy," she said. "He really is. He's never been a violent man."

Custer said that she didn't know about the road-rage shooting until last night, when Squillaciotti threatened to end his life.

Squillaciotti's bail has been set at $2 million and a psychiatric evaluation has been ordered, according to Cathie Abookire, a spokeswoman for the District Attorney's Office. A status hearing is scheduled for Friday.

In an era of easily obtainable guns and short fuses, Deputy Police Commissioner Kevin Bethel urged drivers to take a more Zen-approach to motoring.

"If you're in a situation on the road and you see someone cutting you off," Bethel said, "then you need to be a more passive driver and let that go." *

Staff writers David Gambacorta, Jason Nark and Damon C. Williams contributed to this story.