Rudy Giuliani is slapped in the back at Staten Island grocery store by employee who called him a "f**king scumbag" and yelled he was "killing women"': Trump's former lawyer said it 'felt like being shot' 

• Rudy Giuliani was attacked by a supermarket worker on Staten Island on Sunday 
• Giuliani was at ShopRite campaigning for his son, Andrew, when he was slapped as he came out of the restroom 
• Eyewitnesses say the attacker was apparently a 39-year-old worker at the store and was taken into custody by police
• Giuliani, 78, claims that were he not as fit as he is, 'he might have fallen over, cracked his skull and died' 
• Andrew Giuliani is seeking the Republican nomination for Governor of New York

Rudy Giuliani was 'attacked' by a worker and called a 'f***** scumbag' while campaigning for his son at a Staten Island supermarket on Sunday afternoon.

The 39-year-old store employee was on shift at the time of the alleged assault which saw the former New York City Mayor slapped on the back. 

The assailant, who has not been named was taken into custody while at the store and was charged with second-degree assault involving a person over age 65. 

Surveillance footage from the store shows the worker barely tapping Donald Trump's former lawyer on the back, but Giuliani appeared shaken by the ordeal describing it as 'like being shot' and that he was hit so hard he almost fell to the ground. 

Giuliani recounted the incident on WABC Radio later on Sunday evening in which he said he could have been killed. 

'I come out of the men's room and a group of people are around me, hugging me and kissing. All the sudden, I feel a shot on my back. Like somebody shot me!,' he began.

'I feel this tremendous pain in my back, and I’m thinking, what the — I didn’t even know what it was. All of a sudden, I hear this guy say, ‘You’re a f***ing scumbag,’ then he moves away so nobody can grab him.

'I went forward but luckily I didn't fall down. Lucky I'm a 78-year-old who's in pretty good shape, cause if I wasn't, I'd have hit the ground and probably cracked my skull  and then I look around and the guy says words I can't repeat. 'You f***in' whatever!'

'He moves away yelling and screaming, 'You're gonna kill women!''

‘You guys think you’re saving babies, but you’re gonna kill women,’ the worker, who faces assault charges continued to rage.  

Giulinai said that he understood the comment to be about abortion rights and the Supreme Court's overturning of Roe v Wade. 

'The Supreme Court made a decision,' Giuliani said. 'You don’t go around attacking people because of it. I mean, go get it changed.' 

'He looked either drunk or high. He works for ShopRite and I thought to myself that I might ordinarily have ignored it. But I had to have this guy arrested because this has going on too damn much.

'I mean suppose I was a weaker 78-year-old and cracked my skull and died?' he asked.

'This has to stop. This is getting ridiculous,' he told the New York Times. 'I’ve been in politics 50 years, I’ve never been attacked like this.' 

Giuliani said he had red marks on his back but there was no blood and he had managed to stay on his feet.

'My back hurts, but otherwise I’m able to walk and stuff like that.He almost knocked me down. Thank God for a 78-year-old, I am in pretty good shape.'

Giuliani has flipped over the years when it comes to his stance on abortions, first having opposed them, then supporting them before backtracking once again.

On his WABC radio show he said he had gone through 'a torturous, intellectual, and emotional and moral situation with abortion' before ultimately deciding that he opposed the practice.

Giuliani, 78, was at the supermarket as he stumped for his son, Andrew, who is running to be New York State Governor.

'He’s doing fine,' son Andrew told the New York Post. 'But it’s a sad day when New Yorkers’ greatest crime fighter, ‘America’s Mayor,’ is attacked. I blame the left-wing for encouraging violence. This is crazy.'

Andrew said that his father was in good spirits and joked: 'I ran into the only person who is not voting for Andrew Giuliani.'

Witnesses and law enforcement say he his father appeared shaken following the assault. 

'I was stunned. I was shoulder-to-shoulder with Rudy inside ShopRite. We're talking, and all of a sudden an employee came out of nowhere and open-handedly slapped him in the back and said, 'Hey, what's up scumbag?'' Rugova-Johnson told the  New York Post. 

'[The attacker] was on duty at the time,' she said. 'The cops arrested him.'

Another eyewitness shared a similar account with DailyMail.com.  

'I was doing my normal usual grocery shopping here in ShopRite when I happened to see the former Mayor Giuliani in there. I went up to him to say "hello" and I wanted to take a photo with him. I was getting ready to take this photo when a gentleman that works here hit him open handedly in the back, closer to his neck and said to him "Hey you f***ing scumbag!"' explained shopper, Drita Rugova.

'Number one he's a senior citizen and no matter what his political views are, nobody should be hit. He went to use the men’s room and then this gentleman obviously isn’t happy with Giuliani and decided to assault him,  so the gentleman was arrested,' Rugova continued.

'It happened so quickly. I mean I was shoulder to shoulder with Giuliani and I could’ve been hit. Never mind me, I just felt bad for Giuliani. He hit him so hard that I felt it.'

'I am a regular shopper here and I’ve seen that employee in here. I’ve never had words with him or anything. I'm actually stunned that gentleman did that especially knowing all the staff are nice and the owner's are nice to everybody,' Rugova said.

Giuliani who was a lawyer for former President Donald Trump when he was in office, was posing for photos at the time of the attack.

'Rudy was assaulted,' Giuliani's partner Dr. Maria Ryan said. 'He's a 78-year-old man with a bad back and bad knees.'

Shortly after the incident, Andrew Giuliani tweeted 'MAKE NEW YORK SAFE AGAIN!' although he did not refer specifically to the incident. 

A worker at the ShopRite store who answered the phone told DailyMail.com that they were 'not allowed to say anything' however the store later released a statement regarding the incident.

'We are aware that an incident instigated by a store associate involving former Mayor Rudy Giuliani took place at our store on Staten Island earlier today. Store security observed the incident, reacted swiftly and the police were notified.

'We have zero tolerance for aggression toward anyone,' a spokesperson said. 

On Twitter, Giuliani was roundly mocked over the incident.

'Wow! I would never condone slapping a public official unless they'd done and said all the terrible things Rudy has done,' joked one.

'He got hit so hard his hair started crying again,' mocked another. 

'Hopefully the Staten Island ShopRite employee had access to hand sanitizer,' added another Twitter user