"We're looking into whether there is an organized-crime connection, but we really don't know," said Chief Inspector Vincent DeBlasis. "It could be anything."
DeBlasis said investigators are trying to track the ownership of a .380- caliber semiautomatic pistol found at the shooting scene, a vacant storefront in a shopping center at Grant Avenue and Academy Road.
Zagone, who formerly operated a pizza shop in South Jersey, had no criminal record and no apparent ties to the underworld, according to authorities. He lived in an apartment in Westville Grove, N.J., with his wife and 9-month-old daughter.
"We're trying to piece this together," said Capt. Michael Lorenzo, head of the Police Department's organized crime intelligence unit. "But the kid doesn't fit. He was a hard worker. He did construction work. He was a car salesman. . . . He was fixing up a house that he and his wife were going to move into. He doesn't fit in (with the mob) at all."
Zagone was found in the vacant storefront in the Grant Academy Shopping Center around 9:45 p.m. Wednesday. His pickup truck, loaded with carpenter tools, was parked behind the building with its engine running. Lorenzo said it appeared Zagone was in the process of unloading his truck when he was shot.
Zagone was part of a construction crew working on several buildings in the shopping center, according to police. A report yesterday in The Inquirer incorrectly said the shooting occurred in a building connected to a dental assistants training school in the shopping center.
