A Brooklyn teen’s death could have been avoided if his alleged killer had been busted for attacking his girlfriend hours before at a Manhattan high school, a school source said yesterday.
The girl wanted her boyfriend, Victor Marino, arrested after the attack Tuesday, but the principal of the Manhattan School on East 52nd Street declined to call the cops, the source said.
Marino, 18, left the school for problem kids “hopped on anger. He was pumped up on rage,” the source said.
Several hours later, Marino allegedly shot Joseph Gallo Rodriguez, also 18, in the neck outside Bushwick HS while trying to steal his silver neck chain.
Rodriguez, who was fixing a flat for a teacher, died shortly afterward.
Special Schools Investigator Ed Stancik is probing the incident.
The source said Marino and his girlfriend had a stormy relationship and she made him jealous by telling him another boy was interested in her.
Marino hit the girl in the face and choked her before a teacher intervened, the source said.
But the principal declined to call cops and gave both a daily MetroCard to go home, the source said.
Rodriguez’s death “could have been avoided” if Marino had been arrested, the source insisted.
School officials “knew of the volatility between the two of them,” the source added. “Counseling was not provided. Everyone in the school knew this was going to end in a bad way. We all knew it would end in something tragic.”
Other sources familiar with the attack disputed the claim, saying the girl was not seriously hurt and it is unlikely Rodriguez would have been arrested had police been called.