Now he’s talking very loud, very big. Behind me are 500 kids. He’s going to show that he’s new in school and no one’s going to stand in his way. He started pushing me around.

I’m saying, “Just keep your hands to yourself. You’re not getting in.”

He went nose to nose with me then told me I was very sweet and kissed me on my cheek.

In my mind I’m trying to defuse the situation. Should I hit him now with 500 kids behindme and start a riot? Without knowing the kid, it was my feeling that he had been in prison. He was trying to get me to initiate something. I pushed him off me. Two security officers stepped in.

Our next step was to get him out. He punched a female security officer in the chest and knocked her over a table. I started restraining him.

Other kids jumped in saying, “Don’t hit DeGennaro.” At that point he ran out of the cafeteria. The situation’s over.

Ten minutes later the same kid comes running back, full speed screaming, I’m going to get you.” Cursing big time.

I’m short and stocky. He tried to knock me down, ran into me and fell back. I didn’t move. If I fell down in front of all these kids…it’s crazy you have to play these mind games, but you have to.

He got up and started punching me in the side of my face. We started wrestling again. That’s when I tore my rotator cuff. I held him up against the wall. The security officers handcuffed him.

I was in the apartment next door on the phone and he wouldn’t let me talk to her.

About fourteen hours later he said, “Why do you want to talk with her?”

I said, “I just want to make sure she’s alright.”

He said, “Alright.”

She finally got on the phone. I said to her, “This is the police.”

She said, “Yeah?”

I said, “What is wrong with you! Shut up!”

“But he said…”

“I don’t care!” I was screaming. We’re not suposed to lose control like that, but I was screaming at her. “I don’t care what he said! Agree with anything he says! The idea is to get you and your child out of that apartment!”

“But he said…”

When she said that to me, I gott more crazy, and started just screaming at her. Finally, she started crying. It shook me that I lost control there. I backed down.

I said, “I’m sorry. Let’s agree with anything he says, because we’re not going to let him do all this stuff. Just agree so we can get him out.”

He put the gun down and started talking about coming out, saying, “When I get her, I’m going to do this.”

And she’d start, “No you’re not!” And then the fight would start all over again.

I finally talked him into coming out. Coming out came be very dangerous.

I told him that day, “you have to listen to everything I tell you to do. You can’t deviate because there are so many cops out in this hall and they all have guns.”

When they come out they can often seem quite calm, but when they see weapons all over they freak.

She just kept with the mouth. By the time this guy came out 14 hours had passed since it started. When he did I was screaming final instructions. We were in a housing project. -I knew on the phone he was mad at me the whole last hour.