A city firefighter is accused of using a beer bottle to viciously attack a former high-school-football standout and son of a retired FDNY union official who was working as a bartender at a Bronx tavern, The Post has learned.
Craig Frey, 37, who joined the Bravest in 2002, was busted Friday after he allegedly attacked James LaMacchia, 25, in Brewski’s Bar & Grill in Throggs Neck.
The attack took place after Frey, who was wearing his uniform and allegedly had been drinking heavily, got into a verbal dispute with LaMacchia, according to NYPD and FDNY sources.
Frey allegedly hit LaMacchia with the bottle and used its jagged edges to stab the barkeep in the face and neck. LaMacchia will require plastic surgery, the sources said. Frey, who is married with two kids, is free on bail on assault charges.
LaMacchia was an All-City standout for Fordham Prep and won a football scholarship to Marist College. An FDNY source described the victim as “a phenomenal athlete, and if he had fought with this firefighter one-on-one, without a weapon, he could have wiped the floor with him.”
The victim’s dad is Tom LaMacchia, a retired FDNY firefighter and ex-treasurer of the Uniformed Firefighters Association.
Two years ago, a man was fatally shot outside the bar, then under different ownership and called the Fiddler’s Elbow, after urinating near a bike belonging to a member of a motorcycle gang. Elvio Feola was convicted of the murder only hours after last week’s alleged attack.