See The Back Slap Rudy Giuliani Claims Could've Killed Him

NEW YORK CITY — Former mayor Rudy Giuliani narrowly escaped death after a heckler slapped him on the back — or so he repeatedly claimed after a Sunday incident inside a Staten Island grocery store.

"I got hit on the back as if a boulder hit me," he said Monday in a Facebook post. "It knocked me forward step or two. It didn't knock me down, but it hurt tremendously."

"He could have easily hit me, knocked me to the ground and killed me."

But many people — including attorneys for the heckler — expressed skepticism over Giuliani's account, especially after viewing store surveillance video first reported by the New York Post.

The video — which was shared by political commentor Ron Filipkowski and viewed at least 3.6 million times — shows Giuliani standing amid a small crowd inside a ShopRite. A man later identified by NYPD officials as Daniel Gill, 39, walks behind Giuliani and slaps him on the back, the video shows.

See the clip circulating online here.

For many, the slap appeared far less grave than the potentially deadly attack Giuliani has claimed.

"After listening to Rudy’s version of his 'attack,' and then watching the video, I’m beginning to question his top secret evidence of voter fraud," Filipkowski tweeted.

"D---, I guess I've been assaulted all my life and just never knew it," tweeted @truth_revisited.

"I just saw the 'slap' that Rudy Giuliani got and bro, that ain't no slap, what a f------ snowflake," tweeted @mmmpadellan.

Gill's defense attorneys with The Legal Aid Society excoriated Giuliani, police and prosecutors. They said Gill "merely patted" Giuliani "without malice to simply get his attention, as the video footage clearly showed."

A Giuliani associate then poked Gill in the chest and told him he was going to be "locked up," before NYPD officers held him in custody for more than 24 hours, the attorneys said.

NYPD officials confirmed to Patch that police arrested Gill and requested an assault charge against him.

"Given Mr. Giuliani’s obsession with seeing his name in the press and his demonstrated propensity to distort the truth, we are happy to correct the record on exactly what occurred over the weekend on Staten Island," Legal Aid attorneys said in a statement.

The incident unfolded as Giuliani campaigned for his son Andrew Giuliani's bid to be the Republican nominee in New York's governor's race.

Rudy Giuliani said after the slap that Gill heckled him with a barrage of foul language and accused him of "killing women" — a reference to the former mayor's anti-abortion stance in light of the Supreme Court's recent decision that overturned Roe v. Wade.

Giuliani, in another Facebook video posted Monday morning, lambasted Staten Island prosecutors for downgrading Gill's assault charge from a more serious offense that he said police requested. He also insinuated the "dishonest press" somehow shortened the clip circulating online to not show the slap's full force.

The clip does not appear to be altered and, indeed, shows a man slap Giuliani on the back. How hard or dangerous the slap was, however, can be judged by viewers themselves.

Giuliani, who is 78, argued any fall is dangerous at his age. He contended the man should face stiff charges as a deterrent against other attacks.

"You think I worry about this little punk? I worry about this little punk for you, because if he can come and hit me — a 70-year-old man — next thing he does, he's going to hit you," he said. "And not only that, everybody else out there who wants to hit people is gonna do it, and he did it for this specific reason: because I'm pro-life."

Police told Patch that Giuliani denied receiving medical attention after the incident.