The manager of Mac’s Public House on Staten Island hit the deputy while fleeing from arrest after authorities confronted him, the sheriff said.
The manager of a Staten Island bar who has repeatedly and flamboyantly defied New York’s coronavirus restrictions hit a sheriff’s deputy with his car early Sunday as he unsuccessfully tried to escape arrest, the sheriff’s office said. The bar, Mac’s Public House, was ordered closed by the state on Wednesday, but deputies said they found several patrons being served there on Saturday night. When deputies confronted the manager, Daniel Presti, he fled to his car and drove into one of the deputies, throwing him onto the hood, according to the sheriff’s office. Mr. Presti,34, was in custody on Sunday afternoon with charges against him pending, said Joseph Fucito, the city sheriff. Sheriff Fucito said the deputy had been released from the hospital but sustained fractures in each of his shin bones. It was Mr. Presti’s second arrest in six days in connection with the bar’s defiance of shutdown rules. A lawyer for the bar and the bar’s owner, Keith McAlarney, said they did not immediately have a comment on Sunday afternoon. But a post on the bar’s Facebook page objected to Mr. Presti’s arrest, saying he had “just finished working an 18-hour day to provide for his family and save our establishment.” The bar has become a rallying point for defiance of virus restrictions in recent weeks. Located in a state-designated zone where indoor service is banned because of a surge in virus cases, it continued to serve patrons even after its liquor license was suspended at the end of November. In rallies outside the tavern and in YouTube videos and Facebook posts, Mr.
