L&B Spumoni Gardens pizzeria co-owner shot and killed outside Brooklyn home in 'mob-style execution'

The pizzeria had been implicated in a 'mob war' in 2012

The co-owner of Brooklyn’s famed and beloved pizzeria, L&B Spumoni Gardens, was shot and killed in the backyard of his home in a scene fit for the pages of a Mario Puzo novel.

A neighbour found Louis Barbati, 61, slumped over in his backyard with two gunshots in his back early Thursday evening.

“I ran up and he was face-down on the stairs,” the neighbour who found the slain Mr Barbati told New York Daily News. “I saw blood on the stairs and blood on his back.”

Police are on the lookout for a white man in his 30s who they say was seen fleeing the residence.

“A neighbour came to my house and said, ‘Lou’s been shot!” another neighbour added. “When they came out with a body, I knew he was dead.”

Both neighbours declined to give the Daily News their names.

“It’s a family tragedy, we can’t speak right now,” a restaurant manager said.

L&B Spumoni Gardens was at the center of a mob war of sorts when Frank Guerra, a known associate of the Columbo crime family, was acquitted of double murder and the extortion of a Spumoni employee.

Guerra, whose ex-wife also owned a portion of the pizzeria, accused the Spumoni employee of stealing Spumoni’s sauce recipe.