Long Beach Man Pleads Guilty to Axe Attack on Ex-Coworker

A Long Beach man will spend the next two decades behind bars after pleading guilty to a brutal axe attack on a former coworker, Nassau County District Attorney Anne Donnelly announced Friday.

Anthony Calvo, 35, entered a guilty plea to second-degree attempted murder on March 20 for ambushing a 60-year-old man on a residential Long Beach street and striking him repeatedly in the head and face with an axe. He is expected to be sentenced to 22 years in prison on May 1.

The attack happened on February 13, 2025, as the victim walked home along Arizona Avenue after finishing an overnight shift as a taxi dispatcher for Long Beach Taxi. Calvo had previously worked for the same company as a driver before leaving in 2022, more than two years before the assault.

Donnelly said Calvo ran up behind the victim and struck him at least three times, hitting him in the face, head, and arm. The violence was sudden and severe, the kind of ambush that upends any sense of safety a person might feel walking through their own neighborhood.

What happened next reflects the victim’s sheer determination to survive. Badly wounded, he dragged himself to the rear yard of his home and banged on the door until a family member answered and called 911. Long Beach Police responded to the scene, and the victim was transported to Mount Sinai South Nassau Hospital. Doctors there discovered life-threatening injuries to his head and jaw that required multiple surgeries.

Investigators moved quickly. Surveillance video captured Calvo fleeing the scene on a white electric bicycle, wearing dark clothing. That footage became a key piece of the case. A search warrant executed at Calvo’s apartment on February 19 turned up a white electric bicycle and a full-face mask. Calvo was arrested on March 12. The axe used in the attack was also recovered, and DNA analysis confirmed Calvo’s connection to the weapon.

The evidence assembled by prosecutors was substantial. Between the surveillance footage, the physical items recovered from his apartment, and the DNA match on the axe, the case against Calvo was overwhelming.

Donnelly addressed the community directly after the plea. “With today’s plea, Calvo’s victim, his family, and the Long Beach community can hopefully take comfort in knowing that this dangerous individual will spend the next two decades in prison,” she said.

For a neighborhood like Arizona Avenue, a tree-lined residential stretch where people walk to and from work at all hours, a violent ambush of this nature raises unsettling questions. The victim was simply doing what millions of Long Islanders do every day: walking home after a long shift. He had no reason to expect what was coming.

The case also raises questions about what motivated the attack. Calvo had not worked at Long Beach Taxi for more than three years before targeting his former coworker. Prosecutors have not publicly detailed a motive, and the nature of whatever grievance Calvo may have held, if any, has not been made clear in court filings described by the District Attorney’s office.

What is clear is the severity of the violence and the methodical nature of the assault. The dark clothing, the full-face mask, the approach from behind, these were not the actions of someone acting on impulse in the moment. The victim survived, and that survival speaks to his own resilience as much as anything else.

The 22-year sentence, assuming the court accepts the plea agreement at the May 1 sentencing, keeps Calvo off Long Island streets well into his fifties. For the victim, who endured multiple surgeries and the trauma of a near-fatal attack on his own block, the road to recovery has been far longer than the legal proceedings.

Long Beach residents deserve to know their streets are safe, especially for workers heading home after overnight shifts. Friday’s guilty plea is one step toward restoring that confidence, though the victim and his family carry wounds that no courtroom outcome can fully address.