Gun charge dropped against NYC Councilwoman Inna Vernikov because weapon was ‘inoperable’: DA

Pistol-packing City Councilwoman Inna Vernikov won’t face a criminal charge for bringing a gun to a pro-Palestine protest last month because the firearm was later determined to be “inoperable,” a spokesman for Brooklyn District Attorney Eric Gonzalez said Friday.

Vernikov, a Republican who represents Brighton Beach and nearby neighborhoods, was spotted at the Oct. 12 protest at Brooklyn College with a handgun clipped to her waistband. Standing in front of a group of protesters, her weapon visible, Vernikov lamented in a video that they were chanting “free Palestine” and said that anyone attending the demonstration was “nothing short of a terrorist without the bombs.”

Vernikov has a gun license, but due to a state law enacted last year, it’s illegal to carry firearms, regardless of permits, at “sensitive locations,” including protests. After video and photos swirled on social media of Vernikov packing heat at the Brooklyn College protest, NYPD officers showed up at her house early Oct. 13 and asked her to surrender her permit and weapon before she was charged with illegal possession of a gun.

But Oren Yaniv, a Gonzalez spokesman, said Friday that the DA’s office is dropping the charge against Vernikov because NYPD lab technicians later determined that the weapon she surrendered “was unloaded and missing the recoil spring assembly, rendering it inoperable.”

“In order to sustain this charge, it must be proven beyond a reasonable doubt that the weapon in question was capable of firing bullets. Absent such proof, we have no choice but to dismiss these charges,” Yaniv said.

Still, Yaniv chided Vernikov for showing up to the protest with a gun.

“Peaceful protest is the right of every American, but bringing a gun to a protest is illegal and creates an unacceptable risk of harm that has no place in our city,” he said.

Two sources familiar with the way Vernikov’s arrest went down said she initially wouldn’t let officers inside her home when they came to seize her permit and weapon, telling them she wanted her lawyer present. Her lawyer then arrived and spoke with her privately before they gave the officers the weapon and went to the local precinct for her to be booked, the sources said.

Brooklyn Councilman Chi Ossé, a progressive Democrat, voiced concern about the fact that Vernikov was not arrested while strapped at the protest.

“Shame on the NYPD, and shame on Inna Vernikov for bringing a firearm to a non-violent college protest to threaten students,” Ossé said.

The charge against Vernikov will be formally thrown out during her next court hearing in the case, set for Jan. 24.

Vernikov did not return phone calls after word of the expected dismissal.

Her attorney, Arthur Aidala, confirmed his client’s “gun doesn’t work,” and said “she is pleased to have this all behind her and looks forward to continuing her fight on behalf of all New Yorkers.”

In the wake of Vernikov’s arrest, City Council Speaker Adrienne Adams ordered the Council’s Ethics Committee to launch a probe into her decision to carry a gun at the protest.

A Council source said it was not immediately clear how the dismissal of Vernikov’s gun charge will impact the ethics inquiry.