(FiveNation.com)- Over the weekend, an employee at a Staten Island ShopRite store smacked former NYC Mayor Rudy Giuliani on the back as he walked by, allegedly over the Supreme Court overturning Roe v. Wade.
The New York Post reported that Giuliani had just exited the ShopRite men’s room and was talking to a group of supporters when the employee came up from behind and slapped him on the back.
The man allegedly said “What’s up, scumbag” as he walked past him.
Giuliani claimed the employee accused him of being “one of the people that’s gonna kill women.” He also alleged that the employee struck him so hard that he nearly fell down and his life was in danger.
But the surveillance video released by ShopRite shows that the employee only lightly patted Giuliani on the back as he was walking by him.
Here’s video of the incident, where Rudy Giuliani said the slap felt like “somebody shot me”
“If I wasn’t [in good shape], I would have hit the ground and probably cracked my skull” https://t.co/7JyOMvyqbX
— philip lewis (@Phil_Lewis_) June 26, 2022
The suspect, 39-year-old Daniel Gill, was arrested on Sunday and charged with second-degree assault involving a person over 65. Gill was freed on Monday after the assault charges were downgraded to third-degree assault, third-degree menacing, and second-degree harassment.
During his arraignment, Gill’s defense attorney described the encounter as a “tap on the back and not a slap.”
According to the defense, Gill was later “followed and threatened” by one of Giuliani’s associates who allegedly poked Gill in the chest and told him he was going to be arrested.
On Monday, Giuliani appeared on Greg Kelly’s Newsmax program where the host told the Mayor, “I gotta be honest, it doesn’t look that bad.”
But Giuliani disagreed, telling Kelly that Gill hit him hard enough to knock him down. He said if what Gill did doesn’t “merit jail time in New York, we’re in the Wild, Wild West.”
Watch Kelly’s interview with Giuliani HERE.
