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Here’s the latest for Monday June 27th: Russian missiles hit Ukrainian shopping mall; Zelenskyy meets with G7 leaders; Brittney Griner Russian drug trial starts Friday; Supreme Court sides with praying high school football coach
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NEW YORK – A heckler who clapped former New York City Mayor Rudy Giuliani on the back at a campaign event was arrested, jailed for more than 24 hours and now faces an assault charge.
The episode Sunday at a Staten Island supermarket produced dueling accounts, with Giuliani likening the touch to being hit by a bullet, saying it could have killed him, while the man’s lawyers described it as a tap, meant to get the mayor’s attention.
Security camera video obtained by the New York Post captured the encounter, which happened as Giuliani was campaigning for his son, Andrew, who is seeking the Republican nomination for governor in Tuesday’s primary.
Giuliani was standing with a group of people when a man walking past reached out, touched the Republican’s back with an open palm, and then said something as he walked away.
The heckler was arrested and was arraigned Monday on misdemeanor charges including third-degree assault, a spokesperson for the Staten Island district attorney said. He was released without bail on his own recognizance and is due back in court on Aug. 17. The heckler was initially charged with second-degree assault, a felony, before the charges were downgraded, WABC reported.
Police said the man said, “What’s up scumbag?” Giuliani said the man accused him of being “a woman killer,” which he took to be a reference to the Supreme Court’s ruling overturning Roe v. Wade.
In the video, Giuliani barely reacts when his back was touched, but in interviews afterward he said it knocked him forward and nearly caused him to fall.
Speaking to Republican radio host Curtis Sliwa on WABC, he said it felt “Like somebody shot me.” Later, in a news conference on Facebook, he said it was “as if a boulder hit me.”
“I might have ordinarily ignored it,” Giuliani told Sliwa, but he said he decided to call the police because “these Democrats get away with everything.”
“I called the 1-2-3 precinct … and I told the people there, ‘I want this guy held and I want him arrested,'” he said.
In a criminal complaint obtained by USA TODAY, the smack caused Giuliani to “stumble forward” and caused “informant physical injury including but not limited to redness, swelling, and substantial pain to the back and left side of his body.”
The Legal Aid Society, which is representing the man, disputed Giuliani’s account.
“Our client merely patted Mr. Giuliani, who sustained nothing remotely resembling physical injuries, without malice to simply get his attention, as the video footage clearly showed,” the society said, adding that the man “was then needlessly held by the NYPD in custody for over 24 hours.”
“Given Mr. Giuliani’s obsession with seeing his name in the press and his demonstrated propensity to distort the truth, we are happy to correct the record on exactly what occurred over the weekend on Staten Island,” it said.
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A ShopRite spokesperson said in a statement to USA TODAY the company is aware of the incident and the employee is “suspended pending termination.”
“Store security observed the incident, reacted swiftly and the police were notified. We have zero tolerance for aggression toward anyone,” the statement read.
In his Facebook news conference, Giuliani said the video “probably is a little deceptive because it just shows that hand on my back.” He added that the heckler should face jail time.
“If that doesn’t merit you jail time in New York, we got the wild West here,” he said.
Contributing: Jordan Mendoza, USA TODAY
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