Former Employee Charged In Hotel Incident

A former employee of the Garden City Hotel has been charged with spilling an unfamiliar liquid in the building last Thursday. Preliminary tests have indicated the substance was non-hazardous, protein-based and comprised of up to 40 food products, including a powdered lemonade mix, eggs, milk, Cream of Wheat, yeast and Alfredo sauce.

At 3 p.m. a man wearing a respirator mask ran through the western part of the hotel near the ballroom spilling an unfamiliar yellowish substance. He escaped in a red car and drove west on Seventh Street.

Members of the Garden City Police Department and Nassau County Police Department, along with several agencies including the Office of Emergency Management and hazmat teams, quickly descended upon the scene. The New York City Police Department, FBI and the Joint Terrorism Task Force were also notified. The hotel was reopened several hours later.

Scott Wallace, 23, of Rosedale, Queens, was arrested later that evening and charged with second degree criminal mischief and first degree placing a false bomb or hazardous substance. On October 21, Wallace pleaded not guilty at his arraignment at First District Court in Hempstead and was held on $50,000 bond.

According to newspaper reports, Wallace had worked as a busboy in the hotel's banquet services department and decided to return with the substance after he repeatedly arrived to work late and was told to speak with his supervisor. He quit, and returned on October 20th for his paycheck. After he got his check, he pulled his car up to the front of the hotel, walked in with a shirt over his face and a half-gallon jug, and poured the liquid on the carpet. Police have determined that he was alone, although initial reports said three others were in the car.

Two hundred people were evacuated from the hotel and bussed to the field house at St. Paul's. Eight people who were exposed to the substance, including six employees, a guest and a village police officer, were decontaminated as a precaution in a special decontamination unit set up on the hotel's west side. They were all released and have reportedly not developed any illness.