A Nassau County police officer has been suspended without pay and forced to surrender his weapons after pointing his gun at a worker inside a Farmingdale, N.Y. bar, according to a police statement.
The entire incident was captured by the bar's surveillance cameras.
Internal affairs investigators from the Nassau police department examined the video and confirmed the "misconduct," according to the police statement.
The officer's identity has not been released. He was off duty at the time of the incident in the early morning hours of Tuesday, April 26.
"I had never seen him before," said bar employee Charlie Ball. He was the man at whom the officer pointed the gun.
Ball described his reaction as "disbelief."
"I couldn't believe this was happening," he said. "It was really a crazy, surreal situation."
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Ball recounted what happened to NBC New York. He said he was inside the South Main Street Pub before dawn, cleaning up the small bar, when the officer and a mutual friend entered through the rear door and shared a drink as Ball stood behind the bar.
"By their own admission, they said they had frequented a number of joints beforehand," said Ball. "I think he was drunk."
Ball is uncertain what "set the officer off," but at one point in the video, as Ball turns away from the men at the bar, the officer pulls his gun and points it directly at him.
"This guy seemed like he was on an emotional rollercoaster," Ball said. "I didn't know what was going to happen. You got a gun in your face -- somebody could have gotten killed."
Moments later, the video shows the officer pulling his ammunition clip from the gun and placing it on the bar.
The officer left a short time later, but according to the bar's owner, he returned seven hours later to continue drinking and was "incoherent." At one point, the owner said, the officer did offer an apology.
Ball and others from the bar contacted the Nassau police internal affairs unit, prompting the investigation.
"I just want him off the street," Ball said. "He's drinking, driving around and he's got this gun -- it's a big concern."
The Nassau district attorney's office is continuing the investigation. A call to the Nassau County PBA was not returned.
