'Son of Sal': NYPD link SI man's rifle to the murders of three Brooklyn shopkeepers with Middle Eastern roots

It’s a match.

A police source said the .22-caliber sawed-off gun found in the duffel bag of the man being questioned as the possible Brooklyn serial killer was used in all three murders.

Salvatore Perrone is still being questioned at the 67th Precinct stationhouse but has not been charged.

But the ballistics match seems to make that inevitable, the source said.

“He puts himself at all three scenes,” the source said. “The motive is still unclear.”

Perrone’s Staten Island neighbors are unsure if he’s the serial killer of three middle-aged, balding Middle Eastern shopkeepers — but for years, they have been calling him by a nickname that refers to a mass murderer from New York’s dark past.

Perrone, who turns 64 on Thanksgiving, is derisively known to his neighbors as “Son of Sal” because he lives in an unfinished, unkempt home and often calling various city agencies to report his neighbors’ trash can violations and building irregularities.

One neighbor relished the possibility Perrone could face arrest — but found it difficult to believe Perrone killed anyone.

“If he is the fellow and he is convicted we’ll throw a block party,” the neighbor said. “He’s insane. But a serial killer? That’s a long stretch.”

The Ruger rifle with the sawed-off stock and a laser taped to it, plus a bloody kitchen knife, two Buck folding knives, black gloves and legless pantyhose that might have served as a mask, were found in the Midwood apartment where Perrone’s 60-year-old girlfriend lives, sources said.

Police sources said they were inside the same duffel bag Perrone is seen carrying in the now infamous surveillance video police released after he was spotted near the Flatbush Ave. shop where Rahmatollah Vahidipour, 78, was shot dead Friday night.

The first murder victim, Mohammed Gebeli, 65, was shot inside his Bay Ridge store on July 6.

The second victim, Isaac Kadare, 59, was shot in the head and stabbed in neck inside his Bensonhurst shop Aug. 2.

The girlfriend is not likely to face charges, one source said.

The killer has been described as careful and methodical, targeting mom and pop merchants with no internal surveillance cameras.

Police have said the motive for the killings is a mystery.

BY ROCCO PARASCANDOLA , IRVING DEJOHN AND BARRY PADDOCK / NEW YORK DAILY NEWS