People v. Wood

The opinion in which the majority concur, while stating it refers to the facts in the present case, is in reality holding and deciding that the pointing of an unloaded weapon at another does not, as a matter of law, constitute assault in the second degree. After so concluding, it is suggested that such an act might be sufficient to sustain a simple assault or as classified under the Penal Law, assault in the third degree.

In the present case the complainants, husband and wife, had taken the defendant’s wife, who was living separate from him, to visit their children and while complainants’ car…