The Florida couple who used the emergency slide to escape a Delta flight at LaGuardia airport with their Great Dane puppy were returned Wednesday morning from a Brooklyn animal shelter.
Antonio Murdock, 31, and Brianna Greco, 23, a 23-year-old friend, left the Animal Care Centers in New York, in eastern New York, with rain around 11 am
Murdock held Rain on a leash while the puppy hopped over its owners, excited.
“Hey, Mom,” Greco said to his mutt.
“We’re fine, we’re fine,” Murdock told the Post as the couple walked away. “We don’t want to talk now.”
“Of course we’re going to get her, she’s our dog,” said Greco. “People have been very rude. We are in a very emotional state. We want to be alone ”.
NYC’s Animal Care Centers did not immediately respond to a request for comment on why the animal – which could have been injured during the couple’s risky escape – was released to its owners.
A spokesman for the Department of Mental Health and Hygiene – which oversees the ACC – also made no immediate comment on Wednesday.
The couple opened an emergency door on the Delta plane at LaGuardia airport around 11 am on Monday and took Rain with them as they descended the inflatable slide on the runway.
The flight to Atlanta was preparing to take off at the time of the flight.
Murdock was accused of criminal invasion, reckless danger and criminal action, Port Authority police said on Tuesday. He was released without bail and issued a protection order to prevent him from contacting the flight attendant.
Out of the criminal court on Tuesday, Murdock said he suffered from anxiety and depression, and was having a panic attack at the time of the incident.
“I asked three or four times to let go,” he said. “They said they were stopping the plane and they never stopped the plane, and I got to the point where I was feeling dizzy.”
Greco was accused of criminal invasion and released with a fine.