Albany Med standoff suspect indicted on murder charge in mother’s death

An Albany County grand jury returned a three-count indictment that charged Dino Savoca, 61, with second-degree murder, attempted murder of a police officer and possession of a weapon.

His attorney, Martinย Bonventre, declined to comment on Monday.

The indictment does not lay out exactly how investigators believe Savoca killed his mother, Rosemary Appel.ย 

Police confirmed Appel died a day after the incident, but did not clarify her cause of death at the time.

Savoca is scheduled to be arraigned on the new charges at 9:30 a.m. on Wednesday. The news was first reported by WTEN.

The standoff started on March 27 when Savoca became upset after he learned his mother was going to be moved to another facility.

Police said Savoca came to the hospital and threatened a person with what appeared to be a handgun; the worker had arrived around 2:30 p.m. Monday to transport Savoca’s mother. Savoca then barricaded himself in the hospital room with a recliner chair and medical stands with his mother on the third floor of Building C, police said.

Police tried for several hours to negotiate with Savoca but he did not appear to respond to them. When the city police department’s Emergency Services Team entered the room they found Savoca sitting upright on the bed next to his mother, who was slumped over and unconscious, a city police detective testified at a preliminary hearing.

Next to Savoca was a BB gun and a shotgun, cocked and ready to fire with a single 12-gauge round inside, according to police. Albany police initially told the media Savoca was only armed with a BB gun.

Savoca allegedly did not respond to commands, and other officers had to drag him from the room, according to police testimony.

Police later went to the residence he shared with his mother on Ahl Avenue in Colonie…

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