New York Post - 19.08.2019

New York Post, Monday, August 19, 2019

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10

Americans strongly back

many proposed gun laws

following massacres this

month in Texas and Ohio, a

poll released Sunday shows.

The NBC News/Wall

Street Journal poll is among

the first completed since

shooters armed with semi-

automatic weapons killed

31 people and injured

scores more in massa-

cres in El Paso, Texas,

and Dayton, Ohio.

Nearly 90 percent of

Americans told poll-

sters they support ex-

panding background

checks to cover all gun

sales, while about three-

quarters said they would

back “red flag” laws to take

guns away from the men-

tally ill and a voluntary gun

buyback program.

Nearly two-thirds, 62 per-

cent, said they would sup-

port legislation to ban the

sale of assault rifles. But

only 25 percent support

banning the handgun sales.

Meanwhile, just over one-

third — 36 percent — ap-

proved of President

Trump’s response to the

mass shootings on Aug.

and Aug. 4. But 52 percent

disapproved.

The poll, conducted from

Aug. 10-14, showed Trump’s

approval rating at 43 per-

cent, down 2 percent but

within the 3 percent margin

of error. Nolan Hicks

Toughen

gun laws,

90% say

Two men with handguns

in their waistbands alarmed

shoppers at a Kansas City-

area Walmart on Sunday,

but police said they were

just buying ammunition for

target practice.

The men were coopera-

tive and were released be-

cause they hadn’t violated

Missouri law, Kansas City

Sgt. Jake Becchina said.

Shopper Clennon Jones

said he saw officers speed

into the parking lot and one

jumped out with a shotgun.

Missouri allows people 19

or older to openly carry a

firearm. On Aug. 3, 22 peo-

ple were killed during a

mass shooting at an El Paso,

Texas, Walmart. AP

Gun scare

at Walmart

Michael Dalton

By ISRAEL SALAS-RODRIGUEZ

and CRAIG McCARTHY

An NYPD cop who previously

worked as a lifeguard put his ex-

perience to use on Sunday when

he rescued a woman who had

jumped into the Hudson River

after her boyfriend dumped her,

cops said.

Officer Christopher Collins

and his partner, Officer Tim

Poon, were dispatched to Pier 62

in Chelsea shortly before 8 a.m.

in response to reports of a cou-

ple engaged in a loud argument,

cops said.

They were quarreling because

the man wanted to end their re-

lationship — and the woman re-

sponded by leaping off the pier,

the NYPD said.

By the time the cops arrived,

the current had already carried

the 33-year-old woman 20 feet

from the pier.

“I saw the girl right here float-

ing, struggling, she had like a big

backpack,” Collins said.

Collins — who said he worked

as a lifeguard at a pool in North

Bergen, NJ, about 20 years ago —

quickly grabbed a rescue buoy

and stripped off his gun belt, bul-

let-proof vest and shirt.

“I just jumped in, grabbed her

and brought her to the buoy,” he

said.

The hero officer said he had to

swim about 100 feet to grab the

woman and pull her to safety,

but downplayed his lifesaving ef-

fort.

“Any other cop would do the

same thing — well, the ones that

can swim,” he said.

A 71-year-old man who wit-

nessed the incident unfold

said the woman appeared

to have been suicidal.

“At first, I didn’t hear

much, but then they

started getting louder

and the girl said, ‘You

did this to me,’ and the

guy said, ‘Let’s be adults,

we knew this relationship

didn’t work,’ ” said the

man, who gave his name as

Richard.

“Then she started saying

things like she was going to

kill herself,” he said.

The woman was appar-

ently wearing the man’s

backpack, which he wanted

her to hand over.

At one point, she climbed

onto a railing and was sitting

on it as they argued, accord-

ing to the witness.

“I’m not sure if she actually

jumped or in the struggle

she fell over, but she fell into

the water and she had the

backpack on at the time,” Ri-

chard said. “She obviously

knew how to swim. She

wasn’t swimming, but she

was floating on her back and

she kept yelling at him, us-

ing some poor words.”

The woman, who wasn’t

identified, was taken to

Bellevue Hospital for a psy-

chiatric evaluation after be-

ing rescued, according to the

NYPD.

Additional reporting by

Bruce Golding

Ex-lifeguard pulls

gal from Hudson

PIERLESS HERO:

When Officers Tim Poon

(left) and Christopher

Collins found a woman

floating off Chelsea’s Pier

62 Sunday, Collins —

once a lifeguard —

jumped in to save her.

The NBC News/Wall

Street Journal poll is among

the first completed since

shooters armed with semi­

automatic weapons killed

31 people and injured

scores more in

cres in El Paso, Texas,

and Dayton, Ohio.

Americans told poll­

sters they support ex­

panding background

checks to cover all gun

sales, while about

quarters said they would

back “red flag” laws to take

guns away from the men­

tally ill and a voluntary gun

buyback program.

A 71­year­old man who wit­

nessed the incident unfold

said the woman appeared

“At first, I didn’t hear

much, but then they

started getting louder

and the girl said, ‘You

did this to me,’ and the

guy said, ‘Let’s be adults,

we knew this relationship

didn’t work,’ ” said the

man, who gave his name as

“Then she started saying

things like she was going to

The woman was appar­

ently wearing the man’s

backpack, which he wanted

At one point, she climbed

onto a railing and was sitting

on it as they argued, accord­

“I’m not sure if she actually

jumped or in the struggle

she fell over, but she fell into

the water and she had the

backpack on at the time,” Ri­

chard said. “She obviously

knew how to swim. She

wasn’t swimming, but she

was floating on her back and

she kept yelling at him, us­

The woman, who wasn’t

identified, was taken to

Bellevue Hospital for a psy­

chiatric evaluation after be­

ing rescued, according to the

Additional reporting by

gal from Hudson

Officer Daniel Pantaleo was “un-

truthful” during his interviews with

investigators after the death of Eric

Garner, according to an administra-

tive judge for the NYPD.

The 46-page opinion from Deputy

Commissioner of Trials Rosemarie

Maldonado, who oversaw Panta-

leo’s (inset) departmental trial in

May and June, blasted the Staten Is-

land cop’s repeated choke-

hold denials as “implausible

and self-serving.”

“[Pantaleo’s] use of a

chokehold fell so far short of

objective reasonableness that

this tribunal found it to be

reckless — a gross deviation from

the standard of conduct established

for a New York City police officer,”

Maldonado wrote. “More-

over, [Pantaleo’s] glaring der-

eliction of responsibility pre-

cipitated a tragic outcome.”

In the opinion, the judge

describes how Pantaleo de-

nied using a chokehold on

Garner and acted “disingenuous”

when viewing cellphone video of his

encounter with him on July 17, 2014.

Maldonado’s report was first ob-

tained by The New York Times on

Sunday and later confirmed by an

official who spoke to The Post.

Police Commissioner James

O’Neill is expected to make a deci-

sion this week on whether to follow

Maldonado’s recommendation to

fire the police officer.

Nolan Hicks and Chris Perez

Judge slams Pantaleo’s ‘untruthful’ testimony