UPDATED: FDNY Medal Day ends in racial slur fed brawl between firefighters
Fights both outside bar and at firehouse get media attention & two investigations
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UPDATE
A second investigation has been launched into the fights at a bar and a FDNY firehouse on Wednesday after the annual Medal Day ceremony. Now, an NYPD internal affairs investigation is looking at why no one – including a firefighter who pushed a cop and apparently drunk firefighters who drove off – was arrested.
Thomas Tracy, Ginger Adams Othis & John Annese, Daily News:
Officers interviewed the firefighter who was targeted with a racial slur at the scene. He confirmed a white firefighter called him the n-word.
“A lot of guys at the precinct didn’t know why no arrests were made,” the source said. “These guys get drunk at a bar and start fighting like savages, and nothing happens to them.”
The source also noted that some of the firefighters involved drove off, and if they were drunk, that would put the public at risk.
“They should have arrested them, just because some got in their cars and drove away. They could have been drunk driving,” the source said.
EARLIER
It started out as a proud day for FDNY with the annual Medal Day ceremony, a time to celebrate firefighters. That celebration got out of hand later on Wednesday with multiple fights between uniformed firefighters outside a bar and at a firehouse that news reports say started with a racial slur. This now has firefighters from at least three companies under investigation by FDNY and has brought with it the focus of the news media in New York and beyond.
Susan Edelman, Jennifer Bain, Stephanie Pagones & Dean Balsamini, New York Post:
The FDNY is investigating an allegedly drunken, racially-charged brawl among firefighters who were celebrating after Medal Day, officials told The Post.
A department insider said violence — and racial slurs — erupted Wednesday evening in or near Billy’s, a massive, three-level, 22,000-square-foot sports tavern and restaurant on River Avenue across the street from Yankee Stadium.
“The Fire Department initiated an investigation following reports of a fight involving off-duty uniformed firefighters Wednesday night in the Bronx, and has since obtained disturbing video that we have shared with the city’s Department of Investigation,” FDNY spokesman Jim Long said.
Graham Rayman, Thomas Tracy & Ginger Adams Otis, Daily News:
Fists began flying after Rescue 3 member called a firefighter from the other house a “n—-r,” according to sources.
The brawl got so out of control that bouncers sprayed at least one firefighter with pepper spray as they broke up the fisticuffs, sources said.
Cops were also called.
A short time later, three drunken white members of Ladder 49/Engine 68 went to Rescue 3 on Washington Ave. in Claremont to continue the fight — but were beaten up and sent home.
