Police: Rockville Centre Woman Held Teen At Gunpoint After ‘Ring And Run’ Prank
January 24, 2012 5:54 PM
ROCKVILLE CENTRE, N.Y. (CBSNewYork) – A Rockville Centre attorney is under arrest after allegedly holding a suspected teenage prankster at gunpoint until officers arrived at her home Sunday night, Nassau County police said.
Bernadette Greenwald, 47, apparently lost her cool after someone repeatedly rang her doorbell and ran from the home around 11:15 p.m. Sunday.
The “ding, dong, ditch” prank was apparently carried out three times and after the last incident, police said Greenwald, a former Bronx Assistant District Attorney, grabbed her .9 mm pistol and fired one round into the air in front of her house.
Police said Greenwald later saw a 17-year-old boy walking in front of her N. Forest Avenue home. She allegedly approached the teen and pointed the gun at him. Greenwald’s retired Air Force pilot apparently returned home to discover the youth inside his home.
“[Greenwald's husband] arrived during the incident. He did see his wife with a gun. It’s a licensed gun, it is registered to her. In the house with the wife holding the gun, He pulled the kid outside the house, and waited for the police,” attorney Mitchell Barnett said.
According to court papers, a 17-year-old teen testified “I had 5 or 6 beers” and then walked towards the Greenwald’s home. “A woman appeared at the front door with a gun,” papers said. “I was scared…I put my hands up in the air.”
The teen’s shaken mother told CBS 2′s Jennifer McLogan: “I’m very emotional right now. My son did not do anything wrong.”
Greenwald has been charged with menacing, reckless endangerment and prohibited use of a dangerous weapon. The married mother of two declined to comment on her arrest when reached by 1010 WINS.
Barnett, said his client was home alone with her two children Sunday night and felt threatened. He also contended that the teenager had been found loitering on the Greenwald property in the past.
