Former "Sopranos" actor and friend face murder charges in police officer's fatal shooting

An actor who once played an aspiring mobster on &to=http://english.pravda.ru/main/2001/06/07/7157.html' target=_blank>"The Sopranos" faces murder charges along with another man in the death of an off-duty police officer, authorities said.

Lillo Brancato Jr., 29, and his alleged accomplice, Steven Armento, 48, both of Yonkers, New York, remained hospitalized Monday at a hospital in the Bronx.

The suspects were injured early Saturday while allegedly breaking into a Bronx apartment to steal prescription drugs.

Officer Daniel Enchautegui, 28, who lived next door, tried to intercept the burglary. Although wounded in the chest, he fired eight shots, hitting Armento six times and Brancato twice, police said.

The funeral will be Wednesday for Enchautegui, who worked in the South Bronx. He was the second city police officer killed in less than two weeks. Officer Dillon Stewart was shot to death on Nov. 28 during a car chase in Brooklyn.

"I just feel for that family," Stewart's wife, Leslyn, told the Post.

Enchautegui's sister, Yolanda Rosa, called the shooting their mother's "worst nightmare."

She told the Daily News that Maria Enchautegui never wanted her son to become a policeman. "I'm the only one left," said Rosa, 41, whose sister, Yvette, died of cancer in 1996.