A decorated EMS officer is under investigation for allegedly shooting several subordinates for fun with a BB gun in their Brooklyn battalion headquarters, The Post has learned.
“God forbid, he could have taken out an eye,” said a source familiar with the alleged gunplay by Lt. Leonard Tiberi less than two weeks ago. “He thought it was funny, but the guys weren’t laughing.”
At least three emergency medical technicians who were purportedly shot have been summoned to speak to city authorities probing the case.
When asked about the incident, an FDNY spokesman said, “An internal report was filed with us immediately.”
But the spokesman would not say what was alleged about Tiberi, 37, who was appointed to Emergency Medical Services in March 1996.
Investigators are trying to determine if he had previously brought the gun to work with him at EMS Battalion 58 in Canarsie, according to sources.
“He was told three or four months ago that he could not bring a BB gun to work,” the source said. “He brought his gun to work and pops it at [soda] bottles.”
One night within the past two weeks, sources said, Tiberi brought the gun in during a late-night shift, and this time, chose targets other than soda bottles.
“That night, he took it a step further and shot at the employees a couple of times each as a joke,” the source said.
After the incident, Tiberi was “told to leave” work for the night, the source said.
The source also said that all of the EMS workers whom Tiberi allegedly shot at were minorities, while the lieutenant is white. The FDNY had no comment when asked about the races of the people involved.
Although the FDNY’s Bureau of Investigation and Trials was already probing the incident, an informed source said that the city’s Department of Investigations was notified separately even before being contacted by the FDNY. The DOI is now investigating.
Additional reporting by Murray Weiss and John Doyle