Irishmen Shot After Smoking in New York Bowling Alley

Two Irishmen who were tossed from a bowling alley for smoking, tangled with a private security cop and were shot early Sunday morning.

According to The Irish Times Gerard Hourigan of Limerick and Justin Donaghy who hails from Navan, lit up in a Queens bowling alley early Sunday morning and were shown the door. The bowling alley's security cop, 54-year old Michael Iavecchio, is a former prison guard with a license to carry a weapon. Iavecchio has been charged with two counts of second-degree assault, according to the Times article.

The two 29-year=old Irishmen will apparently be charged with "menacing" once they are released from hospital, according to a police spokeswoman quoted by the Irish Times.

"He's a wonderful person, he helps everybody," said Iavecchio's neighbor Roma Ciofalo, 77. "Everybody likes him."

Hourigan was shot in the chest, Donaghy in the stomach. Neither man's wounds were considered life-threatening.

"They're charged with a misdemeanour, not a crime," said James Patrick Delaney, the Irishmen's lawyer. "They had no weapon and they didn't cause any injury. They both have clean records in Ireland and the US. They are both married to American girls. They're hard-working and they're both here legally."

Lawyer Delaney, who owns pubs in New York and Dublin, says he has never seen someone get in a fight over smoking...much less resorting to deadly force.

Irish American lesson to be learned: While throwing a few fists at 2am outside a bowling alley might seem justified, after offending the management by smoking...watch out for the Italian-American former prison guards with .38-caliber ruger who is employed as a rent-a cop.

Read more: http://www.nydailynews.com/news/ny_crime/2010/02/07/2010-02-07_untitled__2bowl07m.html#ixzz0f03ljUnT

http://www.irishtimes.com/newspaper/frontpage/2010/0209/1224264030669.html