UPDATED 6/29/22, 11:00 p.m. ET: New York City Mayor Eric Adams called for an investigation after Rudy Giulani compared being slapped in the back to the experience of being shot. Adams said he thinks the district attorney “has the wrong person” and labeled the so-called slap as nothing more than a pat on the back. Footage of the incident, which you can see below, shows a man putting his hand on the former NYC mayor’s back in Staten Island.
“I looked at the video and someone needs to remind former Mayor Giuliani that falsely reporting a crime is a crime,” Adams said on Tuesday, per the New York Post. “From what he stated about being punched in the head, felt like a bullet — from what he stated, there was a lot of creativity. And I think the district attorney, he has the wrong person he is investigating.”
Adams continued, “If that video wasn’t there, then this person would have been charged with punching the former mayor. He would have been charged with all these offenses that did not materialize […] What if we didn’t have the video? This person would’ve been accused of a serious crime when all he did was pat the guy on the back.”
Giulani responded by telling Adams to “go fuck himself,” per the NYP. He went on to say that he could have died. “It was a very, very heavy shot. He could have easily hit me, knocked me to the ground and killed me,” Giulani said. “He’s lucky he didn’t knock me down. Falling is extremely dangerous for an elderly person.”
Meanwhile, 39-year-old Daniel Gill is being charged with third-degree assault in the case. Gill is also facing charges of third-degree menacing and second-degree harassment, Insider reports.
See original story below.
Rudy Giuliani was slapped on the back by a supermarket employee in Staten Island Sunday, the New York Postreports.
Giuliani, 78, was speaking with shoppers inside a ShopRite, where he was campaigning for his son Andrew, who is running for governor of New York. That’s when an employee at the store approached the ex-mayor and slapped him on his back.
Per the New York Times, an account shared by police said the unnamed 39-year-old man greeted Giuliani with, “What’s up, scumbag?”
“All of a sudden, I feel this, ‘Bam!’ on my back,” Giuliani told the Post. “I don’t know if they helped me not fall down, but I just about fell down, but I didn’t.”
“I feel this tremendous pain in my back, and I’m thinking, what the—I didn’t even know what it was,” he continued. “All of a sudden, I hear this guy say, ‘You’re a f*cking scumbag,’ then he moves away so nobody can grab him.”
Surveillance footage obtained by the Post shows Giuliani getting a firm pat on the back.
“And he says, ‘You, you’re one of the people that’s gonna kill women. You’re gonna kill women,’” Giuliani said, alluding to the Supreme Court’s decision to overturn Roe v. Wade on Friday. “‘You and your f*cking friend are gonna kill women.’
The man has since been arrested, and will allegedly be charged with second-degree assault involving a person over age 65.
