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Armed felon could get 7 years in prison after tirade at Brooklyn Dunkin’ Donuts


A convicted felon’s boozy rage over not being able to buy enough pumpkin donuts at a Brooklyn Dunkin’ Donuts could land him in a federal slammer for seven years.

Antonio Rosario, 35, who served time for attempted murder, was caught with a loaded gun after the feds say he went out of his gourd in a Williamsburg Dunkin’ Donuts because employees there couldn’t fill his order.

One of the store workers described the doughy dispute to a 911 dispatcher: “He wants six pumpkin donuts. It’s the stupidest thing. He wants six pumpkin donuts, but we only have five at the moment so now he’s screaming all in our face, telling us, ‘You’re gonna f–king ‘make it.’”

He pleaded guilty to a federal firearm charge last week, and faces a possible 70 to 87 months in prison when he’s sentenced in Brooklyn Federal Court in July.

Pumpkin donut at Dunkin Donuts. (Courtesy of Dunkin Donuts)
Pumpkin donut at Dunkin Donuts. (Courtesy of Dunkin Donuts)

Rosario’s sweet tooth got the better of him at about 3:10 p.m. on Oct. 12, 2022, at the Dunkin’ Donuts on Broadway near Havemeyer St., according to court documents.

He started shouting at one of the employees, left briefly, then came back and shoved what looked like a weapon in his pants.

That led two terrified employees to call 911, describing him as intoxicated and possibly armed.

“There’s a guy here arguing for six donuts and I think that he brought a weapon inside trying to do something to the co-workers. … Can you guys come pretty quick because he has the weapon on him and I don’t want no one to get harmed or hurt,” said one worker, according to a 911 call record.

When the dispatcher asked if the worker knew what kind of weapon, the worker responded, “No, because he shoved it inside his pants, so I don’t know if it’s a knife or if it’s a gun.”

Rosario left, and police officers found him a few minutes later at a nearby deli. He was carrying a 9mm semiautomatic firearm, with one round in the chamber and 13 more in the magazine, according to federal prosecutors.

Still image from body camera footage showing police encountering Antonio Rosario in a deli shortly after the incident at a nearby Dunkin Donuts in 2021.
Still image from body camera footage showing police encountering Antonio Rosario in a deli shortly after the incident at a nearby Dunkin Donuts in 2021.

As a convicted felon, Rosario is barred from having a gun — and possessing a firearm as a felon is a federal offense.

Rosario has served two state prison terms, including a five-year stretch for a 2009 attempted murder and escape conviction in Brooklyn. He shot a victim in the back, then slipped out of his cuffs trying to flee Brooklyn Central Booking, according to federal prosecutors.

He’s still on parole for a 2014 robbery conviction.

Rosario also made headlines in September 2021, when his girlfriend feared he might die of COVID after he was jailed on Rikers Island for an alleged parole violation.

Still image from body camera footage showing police encountering Antonio Rosario in a deli shortly after the incident at a nearby Dunkin Donuts in 2021.
Still image from body cam footage shows police encountering Antonio Rosario.

Rosario’s lawyer, Lance Lazarro, moved to get the charges against Rosario tossed on Second Amendment grounds, arguing that the 2022 Supreme Court ruling that struck down New York’s concealed-carry law means he has a right to carry the handgun, felon or not.

Judge Pamela Chen denied that motion in February, though, along with a separate motion to suppress the gun on the grounds the police search was illegal.

On Tuesday, Rosario changed his plea in the case to guilty. He remains held in the Metropolitan Detention Center in Brooklyn, and is slated to be sentenced before Chen on July 24.

Lazarro didn’t immediately return a call seeking comment Monday.

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