(Dennis Clark)
THAT SMARTS: Jack Carney, a well-liked professor at C.W. Post, asked students for help yesterday after accidentially shooting himself. (
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One Long Island professor might have what it takes to play for the Jets.
A criminal-justice instructor at Long Island University’s C.W. Post campus bizarrely blasted himself in the leg with a gun outside of his classroom, which was packed with students, cops said yesterday.
Jack Carney, 72, a former New York City fire inspector, was about to give a test at 7:56 a.m. yesterday when he left the classroom and, in an instant, inadvertently pulled a Plaxico Burress.
“He was getting ready to administer a test, and he went out to secure his weapon,” said a student of Carney’s who asked that her name not be used.
“I guess something happened and everyone heard a loud sound, and he shot himself in the leg and the groin.”
Another student, who was in the class at the time, said everyone was shocked by the gunfire.
“There were people in the classroom,” he said. “He just walked out and we heard it happen. No one knows exactly what was going on.”
Unlike Burress — a Jets wide receiver who was jailed for weapons possession while on the Giants after shooting himself in the leg at a Big Apple nightclub — Carney was legally allowed to carry the gun because he is a former law-enforcement officer, cops said.
“It’s unlikely that any charges will be filed,” Nassau County Detective Lt. Kevin Smith said.
It was not clear what compelled Carney to handle the gun in the hallway of the Lorber Hall building on the Brookville campus.
“While he was doing that, the weapon discharged accidently,” Smith said.
“The round entered and remained in his right leg. He actually went back into the classroom and solicited help from the students.”
After Carney asked the students for help, at least one quickly called for an ambulance.
And another student had just been dropped off at school by her father, who is a law-enforcement officer, Smith said.
Fortunately the off-duty officer hadn’t left campus — his daughter told him what happened and he rushed to the classroom.
By that time, Carney had once again exited the class so he could unload the weapon, which the off-duty officer seized when he arrived, Smith said.
Carney, of Wantagh, was hospitalized with wounds that are not life-threatening.
The instructor is well-liked by his students.
“He’s awesome, amazing. He knows everything about his subject,” said the male student who was in the classroom.
“Its really uncharacteristic for this kind of thing to happen.”
Students also said they had no idea why he would be carrying a gun on the campus.
“He would be more careful, you would think,” said the student. “It’s got to be an accident.”
Though police said it is not illegal for a former law officer such as Carney to carry a gun onto a campus, C.W. Post officials yesterday said the school had a “strict no-weapons policy.”