Metro

Elderly activist slaps state lawmaker for supporting Quinn’s health-care record

An elderly West Village activist — who said he had to trek to The Bronx during his wife’s final days because of the St. Vincent’s Hospital closure — smacked a lawmaker in the face yesterday for touting Christine Quinn’s health-care record.

Warzer Jaff

“My wife died two days ago. She was at a hospital in The Bronx. I had to travel an hour and a half to get to see her,” a teary George Capsis, 84, said as he tried to explain his attack on state Sen. Brad Hoylman.

“If this hospital had existed, I could have walked two blocks and spent time with her in the last hours of her life.”

Capsis showed up at a Quinn rally to heckle supporters of the mayoral candidate outside the defunct medical center, where he slapped Hoylman across the face and thrashed volunteer Lucas Reyes when the intern tried to escort him away.

Neither victim was seriously injured, but Capsis was unapologetic. “If you bring him here, I’ll hit him again,” he said.

Christine QuinnR Umar Abbasi

The slap-fest was the highlight of a street-corner debate on hospital closings that drew such stars as Susan Sarandon and Cynthia Nixon.

On one side were supporters of Public Advocate Bill de Blasio, a mayoral candidate, who recruited the celebrities to back his hospitals-not-condos cause.

On the other: Quinn backers, who defended her health-care record.

Hoylman and Reyes declined to press charges.

“I understand he had a death in the family,” Hoylman said later, “but it’s unacceptable to engage on these types of issues through violence. It’s sad on many fronts.”

It was not the first time Capsis let his hands do the talking. In May, he was arrested and charged with slapping a cop after he said a police van cut him off while he was riding his bicycle in Greenwich Village.