It happened in a minute and seemingly for no reason.
"I had turned away like this to get some soda and when I turned back there's a pistol pointed right at my face," said /*Charlie Ball*/.
Ball tends bar at the /*South Main Street Pub*/.
Inside the bar, Ball says two men, one a friend, and the other introduced himself as /*Richard Heffern*/, a /*Nassau County Police Officer*/.
They'd been knocking back shots when Hefferen suddenly raised his service weapon, reholstered it and then, minutes later…
"He pulled the gun out again and took the ammunition out and discharged the bullet from the chamber, that's when I realized that this was fully loaded and ready to go," adds Ball.
They stayed at the bar well into the morning. Ball says it was daylight when Hefferen finally staggered outside, got into his truck and tried to drive home, but his friend convinced him to take a cab instead.
Family friend /*Linda Deleo*/ insists Hefferen career in law enforcement has been blemish-free.
She says he simply used bad judgment that night.
"It looked to me like there were three guys hanging out drinking and one was drunk and made a stupid move, but I don't see it to be the malicious intent that it appears to be," she said.
The bartended decided not to press charges, but the case has been turned over to the District Attorney who might.
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