STATEN ISLAND, N.Y. — Video showing a worker at the Charleston ShopRite slap former Mayor Rudy Giuliani on the back in an incident which prompted police to file assault charges is going viral on social media Monday.
The black-and-white footage, apparently taken from a store surveillance camera and originally posted by the New York Post, has been shared by multiple users and media organizations on Twitter, with multiple posts garnering views into the millions.
The camera was positioned behind Giuliani.
The clip shows the former mayor standing at the center of a group of about a half dozen individuals inside the supermarket when the worker, wearing a pandemic mask, walks up behind him and appears to slap him on the back with his right hand as he walks by.
A woman standing to Giuliani’s immediate left reacts by rubbing the 78-year-old in the back where he was slapped, as Giuliani and the worker appear to exchange words.
The incident occurred at 3:25 p.m., inside of the South Shore-based ShopRite, located at 3010 Veterans Road West, the Advance/SILive.com previously reported.
Monday morning, Giuliani, in a live-streamed news conference, said his shoulder and back hurt from the incident: “It was painful all night.”
The NYPD filed a second-degree assault charge against the worker, who cops identified as Daniel Gill, 39, of the 3400 block of Amboy Road in Oakwood. He is expected to be arraigned in Criminal Court in St. George on Monday.
Giuliani said the man who slapped him on the back threw verbal barbs, allegedly saying, “you’re one of the people that’s gonna kill women.” The comments were in an apparent reference to the reversal of Roe v. Wade, which lifted federal protections for abortions.
The video prompted debate on social media, in some cases along political lines, with some users questioning the severity of the incident and whether it warranted charges, while others point to Giuliani’s age.
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