ANTHONY SENISI

Murdered father is laid to rest - Mourners gather for Anthony Senisi funeral

The rain-swept morning did little to hide the rivers of tears that flowed openly Friday as mourners paid their final respects to Brighton Beach murder victim Anthony Senisi.

Dozens of people flocked to Guardian Angel Church, 2987 Ocean Parkway, on August 10 for the moving funeral mass. Those in attendance included Borough President Marty Markowitz and a host of cops from the 68th Precinct in Bay Ridge, who acted as pall bearers.

Senisi’s brother is a cop from the 68th Precinct, mourners said.

But, as the service continued, news that detectives from the 60th Precinct had apprehended Senisi’s killer did little to console mourners.

“You probably can’t put this in the paper, but that guy is a piece of sh--,” Scott Palma of PR Plumbing and Heating said of 19-year-old Meja Cinto, who has been charged with murdering Senisi on the night of August 4.

Police said that Senisi had just bought some milk from a corner store on Neptune Avenue and was on his way home, to the 2850 block of Brighton 6th Street, when Cinto allegedly attacked him.

Despite being stabbed, Senisi managed to stumble home, where he fell into the arms of his stunned father, 77-year-old Anthony Senisi, Sr., who had just gone outside to see why it had taken his son so long to return.

“Daddy, call the police, someone hit me,” the elder Senisi recalled his son saying, barely containing his grief in front of reporters the day after his son died. “He didn’t even know he had been stabbed. But he had blood all over him. I had blood over my arms. I just laid him down and hugged him.”

Senisi died in his father’s arms – right in front of his 11-year-old son -- just moments before paramedics arrived to render aid. Friends and family members said that he spent the day with his wife, celebrating their 17th wedding anniversary. Senisi is also remembered by a teenage daughter.

After a brief investigation, investigators set their sights on Cinto, who police allege may have lashed out against the neighborhood plumber because he himself had been beaten and stabbed during an earlier neighborhood scuffle.

Looking for vengeance, police alleged that he attacked Senisi, who may have been wearing the same Yankee jersey as one of Cinto’s attackers.

Cops described Cinto as a illegal alien and gang member.

Although he had his share of run-ins with police in the past, Brooklyn prosecutors said that he’s never been arrested in the borough before.

As the investigation progressed, cops tracked Cinto down to Hazelton, Pennsylvania, where he was arrested on August 8.

“He [Cinto] should have been deported a long time ago. He had a prior record,” said an outraged Palma who said that Senisi could “always put a smile on your face.”

“He was a great guy,” Palma said of Senisi. “I can’t say enough about how great he was.”

Another mourner said that his older brother was so distraught over the killing that he is thinking of early retirement from the NYPD.

“He doesn’t want to go back to the job,” the mourner said.

Cops from the 68th Precinct reportedly helped collect money to help pay for funeral costs.

Cinto, who has been charged with murder in the second degree and criminal possession of a weapon, was remanded to custody after his arraignment last week.

According to prosecutors, Cinto was seen stabbing Senisi one time in the left side of the torso during an altercation at the corner of Brighton 6th Street and Brighton 4th Terrace. Even the witness, however, could expound upon why he targeted Sinisi, who had nothing to do with the earlier attack.

The stab wound pierced an artery, according to the medical examiner.

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