Irony by the foot
Ex-Finest blasts L.I. podiatrist in his hoof
HE WAS just footin’ around.
A retired NYPD officer accidentally shot his Long Island podiatrist in the foot Wednesday while trying to show off his gun, Nassau County police said.
The 77-year-old ex-cop whipped out his 10-mm. semiautomatic pistol during an office visit to Dr. Matthew Nester at about 10:30 a.m., officials said.
The gun went off — hitting both the cop and the doctor — inside Nester’s office on Long Beach Road in Oceanside, police and a witness said.
The bullet went through the former officer’s thigh, through a desk and hit the 46-year-old Nester in the right foot, police and the doctor’s father said.
Both men were taken to a Nassau County hospital with nonlife-threatening injuries.
“When I talked with him about an hour ago, he was still upset and visibly shook,” said Martin Nester, 79, the doc’s dad.
“He’s going to be fine. He’s going to have surgery and probably be in the hospital for a couple of days. He might have a bit of a limp,” he said.
The ex-cop, in addition to the handgun, also brought two shotguns in carrying cases to the office and d is a member of a gun n club, the elder Nester r said.
“I couldn’t believe it,” ” he said. “How does this s happen?”
He said his son has s been a podiatrist for r about 15 years.
“He’s the best guy inn the world,” he said. “He’s s a wonderful young man. . His patients love him.”
Hope Pearlstein, of Oceanside, owns a spice shop next to the medical complex where doctor and patient were shot. “I was so sad to hear he was hurt,” she said. “Luckily, it only hit his foot. It’s iron- ic, he’s a foot doctor.”
Pearlstein was less kind to the ex-cop for bringing his gun to a doctor’s office.
“It’s the dumbest thing I’ve ever heard,” she said. “You shouldn’t be taking a gun around, period, even if you’re a re retired cop. There’s a pedia- tri trician in that building, there e ar are kids in there.”
She said she saw both h m men taken out on stretchers. . N Nester was alert, she said.
Diane Duffy, 56, owns a fa fabric store across the streett an and had a similar viewpoint.
“My son is an NYPD copp an and he would never take out t hi his gun to show it to someon one,” she said.
“I’m disappointed. Someone like that should know better. I think he should be reprimanded somehow,” she said.
Nassau police have labeled the shooting as an accident, and said there is no criminality. They did not release the identity of the retired officer.