NEW YORK (AP) - Police said a Queens man with 14 guns threatened to shoot a summer camp where he said children were crowded together without wearing masks.
Nassau County police said they arrested Nicola Pelle, 58, on Tuesday in response to a 911 call he made to report children at a summer camp at a yeshiva next door to his home playing close together outside without masks in violation of social distancing guidelines.
Pelle threatened to shoot the children in a second call to police, Nassau County Police Commissioner Patrick Ryder said at a press conference, where he also announced they had found 14 guns in Pelle’s home.
Pelle was arrested on Tuesday and police searched his home, finding the weapons, which he legally possessed with a Nassau County pistol permit. But police also found one rifle that is illegal in New York state under the SAFE ACT because it features a pistol grip.
Pelle was arraigned in county court and charged with making a terroristic threat, four counts of criminal possession of a weapon and criminal possession of a firearm.
Later in the afternoon, News12 reported an ambulance responded to Pelle’s home and took him away on a stretcher. Neighbors told the broadcaster that Pelle’s health was poor and he was not acting like himself.
There was no attorney for Pelle listed in a court record.
Rabbi Ari Ginian, who runs the Yeshiva Ketana of Long Island, told NBC New York, Pelle, “may have been frustrated by some of the situation we are under. There is duress right now on everyone’s part. We feel for him that he brought himself to that point, and we hope that he takes back what he said.”
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