Steroid Supplier in Bay Ridge Death Ruled "Suicide'

The city Medical Examiner’s Office said that John Rossi, 56, the Bay Ridge pharmacy owner who was found shot to death Monday night, committed suicide, according to the Brooklyn Eagle. Rossi co-owned Lowen’s Pharmacy on Third Avenue at Bay Ridge Avenue.

Rossi was seated behind a desk in the office with a bottle of Jack Daniel’s. He had also left a note to his wife Josephine that said, “Please forgive me.” He was shot in the chest and the head.

Rossi’s store was at the heart of a major steroid investigation. Last May, more than $100,000 in steroids shipped from China were seized. According to the NY Times, a bigger raid in September seized nearly $8 million worth of human growth hormone and anabolic steroids.

The Left in Bay Ridge blog doesn't buy the suicide hypothesis. LIBR notes a few "peculiar" things:

- Rossi was the subject of a criminal investigation and at the heart of an internal probe by the NYPD into steroid use among cops yet he was still allowed to keep a licensed gun?

- Three "suicide" shots?

- The building where the pharmacy is located is owned by Rossi and Julius Nasso. Nasso used to be Steven Seagal's business partner and in 2002 was arrested on suspicion of conspiring to extort Seagal He was charged with a bunch of people with alleged ties to the Gambino crime family.