Mobster Pat Musitano is still refusing to co-operate with police after his own home was sprayed with gunfire just weeks after his brother's murder.

The notorious crime boss also continues to shun offers of police protection, though it seems brutally obvious he could wind up killed like his younger sibling, Ang (Angelo).

"I have spoken with Pat and no, he was not co-operative," Staff Sgt. Mike Cunliffe, who is in charge of the shooting investigation, said Tuesday.

Police say Pat has also not talked with homicide detectives investigating the May 2 hit on Ang, who was executed in the driveway of his own home in Waterdown.

No arrests have been made in his murder and police have not said why he was targeted.

Pat's house was sprayed with bullets early Tuesday. It is an act that one expert says is a likely warning of more violence to come.

Police were called to the St. Clair Boulevard home of Pasquale (Pat) Musitano at 2:30 a.m. after reports of multiple shots fired in the quiet, residential central Hamilton neighbourhood. No one was hurt in what police say was a targeted shooting.

At the scene, there appeared to be about a dozen bullet holes in the front of the home, including three in the glass of a front window and others around the window.

The volley of bullets was literally "a warning shot," said true crime writer James Dubro, who specializes in the mafia.

"It's a potent warning," he said.

Police believe "this home was specifically targeted and confirm the home is associated to the Musitano family."

Police also confirmed they're investigating the possibility it may be connected to the murder of Ang, who was fatally shot in his Waterdown driveway in May.

"This is a clear message, a clear indication that there is a strategy to retaliate something that happened in the past, to target the two brothers," said Antonio Nicaso, an organized crime expert who has written more than 30 books and teaches a course on it at Queen's University.

When Ang Musitano was murdered, Nicaso said there were two possibilities: that he was targeted for something personal or for something to do with his criminal past.

With the latest incident, the author said he believes the violence is clearly retaliation for the past.

Investigators recovered spent bullet casings on St. Clair Boulevard. It's believed a vehicle was used in the shooting, but detectives do not yet have a description.

Officers from the ACTION team canvassed the neighbourhood for witnesses and security video that may have captured the shooting Tuesday. Cunliffe would not say if the house had security cameras.

Video from security cameras mounted on the Ang's house in Waterdown recorded the murder. Homicide detectives made public a clip of the killer's car arriving at the scene.

Cunliffe, of the criminal investigations branch, said police are investigating the latest shooting "with an open mind." It is not being investigated as an attempted murder at this point.

There were people in the home at the time of the shooting, but he would not confirm how many.

Cunliffe also wouldn't say how many shell casings were found at the scene, other than to say "quite a few," or whether any of the bullets actually entered the home.

"The reason for the shooting — we don't know at his time."

On Tuesday morning, the grand tree-lined street with large homes and well-maintained lawns was quiet. Police, including the forensic unit, had left the area around 5 a.m.

Around 5 p.m., the forensic unit returned and began examining what appeared to be bullet holes on the exterior of the home.

Earlier in the day, a man at the house said they just wanted to be left alone. Then he, two women and a man believed to be Pat Musitano drove away around 8:15 a.m.

Later in the afternoon, a man believed to be Pat and another man sat on the front porch before driving off in a navy sedan just before 5 p.m.

A call to high-profile lawyer Dean Paquette, who has represented the Musitanos and is a close family friend, was not returned. Paquette rushed to the hospital the night Ang was killed and has been acting as the family's intermediary with police.

Shaken St. Clair neighbours, who would not give their names out of fear for their safety, described being awoken by loud bangs in the middle of the night, followed by police.

One man described hearing nine "rapid-fire" shots outside his window around 2:15 a.m. that he thought at first might be fireworks.

After jumping out of bed, the man said he saw what looked like a white SUV racing north on St. Clair Boulevard.

"It's very unsettling," he said.

The man said he's never had any issues with the Musitanos and hasn't interacted with them much, only sharing a couple of waves with Pat over the almost two decades they've been neighbours.

Another man who wouldn't give his name also said he heard shots.

"I heard bang, bang, bang, bang, bang ... it was an odd sound. I didn't recognize it as gunfire at first."

He complained about the family's presence on the street, including how men often gather on the front porch, adding there should be a police car permanently stationed out front.

Police will "step up our patrols in the area," said Acting Insp. Paul Evans, who oversees the uniformed patrol division.

As when any neighbourhood experiences a violent incident, such as a home invasion, cruisers will now drive down St. Clair more often en route to other calls and officers needing to do paperwork in their cars will make a point of parking near the Musitano house to do it. As well, plainclothes units will pass through the neighbourhood more frequently.

"More visibility will hopefully give peace of mind to the neighbourhood," Evans said.

And the Musitano address will be red-flagged in the police call system. If any emergency call comes in related to that house, officers sent to the scene will immediately have all the information related to the shooting.

By targeting Pat Musitano's home, his enemy is sending the message that not only is he in danger, but so too is his family, Dubro said. In fact, the murder of Ang — with whom Pat was very close — may not have been about eliminating Ang so much as a warning that his brother could be next, said Dubro.

While snipers have shot and killed Canadian mobsters through their home windows, this attack doesn't seem to have been intended as deadly. Dubro said shooting at a house is a classic mob scare tactic, one that played out on the big screen in a scene from "The Godfather," when someone blew out the windows of the house Al Pacino and Diane Keaton lived in.

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Musitano likely has two choices now, said Dubro: he can move far away with his family and try to escape the retaliation that has him in the crosshairs or he can work with police and help them find the people responsible.

"I think Pat's days are numbered," he said. "They've been a ruthless, violent family."

Mob expert Nicaso echoed the same sentiment, saying the world of organized crime in Canada has changed over the last decade and it's possible that whatever protections the Musitanos had in place in the past are now gone.

Narrowing down the list of suspects may be a challenge, Dubro said.

"Who, of all the people (Pat's) harmed over the last 30 years, could this be? That's the trouble when you're Pat Musitano. Think of all the people who want revenge."

Police were called to Pat's home in September 2015, after an SUV was set ablaze in the driveway.

[ Hamilton mobsters: The Musitano family tree ]

No one was injured in the $60,000 fire, which destroyed the Musitano family's 2013 Ford Edge SUV and caused fire damage to their home and a neighbour's home.

No charges were ever laid in connection with the fire.

Homicide unit Det. Sgt. Peter Thom, who is leading the investigation into Ang Musitano's murder, said the shooting at his brother's St. Clair Boulevard home is "on our radar as well."

Detectives continue to pore over hundreds of hours of security video collected at and near the Waterdown scene where Ang was gunned down.

Some of that video shows the killer's car, a stolen burgundy four-door 2006 Ford Fusion, slowly driving down Ang's street, before pulling in front of his house, where he gets out and shoots him in the driveway. His wife and three small children were inside the home.

The vehicle was found five days later parked near the scene, where police believe it was dumped following the shooting. Thom said police believe the shooter fled in another vehicle, perhaps with an accomplice, waiting there.

The shooter was described as a heavy-set man, wearing a black tuque and black jacket with grey pants and black shoes.

The Musitanos have a long criminal history in Hamilton and were at one time considered one of three Italian mob families vying for control of the territory with the Luppinos and Papalias.

Pat inherited control of the family business when their father, Dominic Musitano, died in 1995.

Together the brothers were accused of taking out notorious mob boss Johnny "Pops" Papalia in 1997, allegedly ordering hit man Kenny Murdock to commit the murder.

At the time, Ang was just 21 and still living with his mother. Pat was a decade older and seen as very protective of his baby brother.

They were charged with first-degree murder, but struck a deal, pleading guilty to conspiracy to commit murder in the shooting death of Niagara crime boss Carmen Barillaro, Papalia's lieutenant.

The brothers served two-thirds of their 10-year sentences and were released from prison in October 2006.

Since then, save the vehicle fire, the brothers had kept a low profile. Friends said Ang had turned his life around, including becoming a devout Christian and joining a Christian men's group while raising three young boys with his wife.

Police had said they had not had involvement with Ang for a long time before his murder and that he had been working in the construction business.

Police say they expect ACTION officers to be in the St. Clair Boulevard area over the next few days.

Anyone with information is asked to call the criminal investigation branch at 905-546-3833. To remain anonymous, contact Crime Stoppers at 1-800-222-8477.

- CLAIRMONT: Musitanos say quiet goodbye to murdered mobster

- Mobster Angelo Musitano was shot at close range in calculated hit: Detective

- Hamilton mobsters: The Musitano family tree