New York Mayor Eric Adams stated he felt former mayor Rudy Giuliani should be investigated for falsely reporting a crime concerning the alleged assault in a Staten Island grocery store last week, Politico reports. Adams went on to say he will talk with NYPD Commissioner Keechant Sewell to see if they feel there is enough evidence for an investigation to take place and called the former mayor’s actions “irresponsible.”
“Someone needs to remind former Mayor Giuliani that falsely reporting a crime is a crime,” Adams said at an unrelated press conference Tuesday. “What he stated, there was a lot of creativity, and I think the district attorney, he has the wrong person he is investigating. ... When you look at the video, the guy basically walked by and patted him on the back.”
ShopRite employee Daniel Gill was charged with assault, menacing, and harassment. All of those charges were downgraded to misdemeanors on Monday. Giuliani claimed, “I feel a shot on my back like somebody shot me. I went forward, but luckily I didn’t fall down.” The surveillance video may paint a different picture from Guiliani’s claims.
The footage shows Gill tapping Giuliani in the back before verbally engaging the former mayor. Gill’s attorneys have maintained their client “merely patted” Giuliani. According to The Guardian, Giuliani said the man accused him of being “a woman killer,” which he took as a reference to the supreme court ruling overturning the right to abortion.
The Legal Aid Society agreed with Mayor Adams stating the action was a simple “pat on the back.” Adams went on to talk about the store footage in question.
“I saw that video,” Adams said. “I’m sure all of you who saw the video, you have to ask yourself, he stated, if he did not feel so heroic, or whatever, he would have fallen to the ground...The guy basically walked by and patted him on the back. I don’t know if he said, ‘congratulations,’ I don’t know what he said to him. But it was clear that he was not punched in the head. It was clear that it didn’t feel like a bullet. It was clear that he wasn’t about to fall to the ground.”