Owner of school-bus company allegedly pulls out loaded gun in middle of meeting with city education officals - NYPOST.com

Big gun at bus talks

By LINDA STASI, YOAV GONEN and LARRY CELONA


They didn't want to say hello to his little friend.

A routine meeting of education officials trying to hammer out a transportation contract took a bizarre and frightening turn when a bus bigwig reached into his briefcase -- and came up with a loaded pistol.

Domenic Gatto, 61, owner of Atlantic Express, one of the city's largest school-bus firms, showed up at the March 4 meeting in Queens to speak with a city Department of Education panel that was handing out extensions for vendors whose contracts run out June 20, a source said.

During the talks, Gatto nonchalantly reached into his briefcase.

"They thought he was reaching in to withdraw a folder," the source said.

"But instead he pulled out a loaded gun."

He was charged with menacing, harassment and reckless endangerment and was released without bail at his arraignment in Queens Criminal Court last night.

But Peter Silverman, a lawyer for Atlantic Express, said the DOE freaked out over nothing.

"I had as clear a view as anyone in the room of Mr. Gatto," he told The Post.

"He did not wave it, he did not point it, and the gun was never removed from its holster."

"No one was threatened, nobody was menaced, and everyone in that room understood that he was not menacing, he was not threatening, and he was doing nothing that was illegal."

Silverman said Gatto, who has a carry license for the gun, was "politely asked to leave when they determined he had a weapon with him."

But Gatto was "amazed to find that somebody at the board filed a complaint with the Police Department," learning about it only on Wednesday, the lawyer said.

A spokeswoman for the DOE declined to comment.

The spokeswoman noted that Atlantic, which has a contract "worth hundreds of millions of dollars," runs about a quarter of the city's school buses.

Gatto's company is in the midst of an acrimonious lawsuit with a competitor, Logan Bus Company, involving contracts.

linda.stasi@nypost.com

Owner of school-bus company allegedly pulls out loaded gun in middle of meeting with city education officals - NYPOST.com.