Former New York City mayor Rudy Giuliani was slapped on the back by a ShopRite employee while campaigning for his son inside of a Staten Island supermarket on Sunday. The man, Daniel Gill, 39, was taken into police custody at the New York City store, the New York Post reported. He has no prior arrests, and was charged with second-degree assault involving a person over age 65.
His charges were later downgraded to third-degree assault, third-degree menacing, and second-degree harassment, the New York Post reported. The worker is “suspended pending termination,” Wakefern Food Corporation, ShopRite’s parent company, told Insider on Monday. See also: California is sending ‘inflation relief’ checks up to $1,050 — here’s who qualifies Giuliani was campaigning for his son Andrew Giuliani, a Republican who is seeking the nomination for governor of New York. “We are aware that an incident instigated by a store associate involving former Mayor Rudy Giuliani took place at our store on Staten Island on Sunday. Store security observed the incident, reacted swiftly and the police were notified. We have zero tolerance for aggression toward anyone,” a ShopRite spokesperson told MarketWatch. See also: Consumer confidence falls to 16-month low on worries about inflation and economy Giuliani was not immediately available for comment, but he did speak about the incident with several news outlets on Sunday, however. “All of a sudden, I felt this tremendous slap on my back or banging on my back. I didn’t know what it was,” Giuliani told CBS New York. Video footage of the altercation went viral, leading Giuliani’s name to trend on Twitter
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overnight Sunday into Monday. The CCTV footage was also widely shared on Reddit.
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