SHOT BLOCKER
Terrified Knick wife turns in gun-nut hubby
Knick Raymond Felton’s gun was loaded with 18 armor-piercing bullets, cops say, when frightened wifee Ariane Raymondo-Felton (here Tuesday) went to police, claiming he had waved it at her.
New York Knicks guard Raymond Felton waved a pistol loaded with bodyarmorpiercing bullets at his wife during several spats in their Upper West Side pad — prompting the terrified woman to turn the gun and her estranged husband in to cops, lawenforcement sources said Tuesday.
The illegal gun’s magazine was packed with 18 rounds — with one in the chamber ready to be fired, the sources said.
“It’s a badass gun,” one lawenforcement source told The Post of Felton’s Belgianmade FNH Five-Seven 28mm handgun.
Felton was arraigned in Manhattan Criminal Court on Tuesday evening on one felony and one misdemeanor count of illegal weapons possession, and freed on $25,000 bond. He is set to practice with the team Wednesday and play against the Miami Heat in Florida on Thursday.
Felton’s wife, Ariane Raymondo-Felton, 24, told cops that Valentine’s Day was the second time in a month that he had pulled the weapon on her.
“When we’d have arguments over our marriage, he would pull out the gun and wave it. It was obviously done to intimidate me,’’ Raymondo-Felton, who filed for divorce last week, told cops, according to sources.
One source explained, “She said, ‘He’s out doing his thing.’ Looks like he was banging some girl on the side. They were arguing about bullst domestic stuff.’’
Felton’s divorce lawyer declined to comment on the reason for their breakup.
Felton, 29 — who has been struggling with the Knicks — originally bought the gun and magazine legally in North Carolina, where he went to college, sources said.
But he never got a permit for it in New York. The magazine had 11 more rounds in it than would be legal for a permitted weapon, sources said.
He kept the gun in a bag under their bed, sources said.
Although the couple was estranged, Felton was still living at their West 63rd Street home, sources said.
His wife waited until he headed to Madison Square Garden for the Knicks’ game against the Dallas Mavericks Monday night — then called her divorce lawyer, sources said.
She told the lawyer she was scared and planned to hide the gun, but he advised her not to keep it, sources said.
Her lawyer then called Felton’s attorney and told him they would send him the weapon, sources said. But Felton’s lawyer balked. “I don’t think anybody is allowed to possess an unregistered, unlicensed firearm in the City of New York, so certainly anyone who offers one to me will be told, politely but firmly, no thank you,” said Felton’s lawyer, Michael Stutman, on Tuesday.
When RaymondoFelton’s lawyer then demanded that Stutman get Felton to come get the weapon, Stutman protested, saying his client was on the basketball court, sources said.
That’s when RaymondoFelton and her lawyer went to the cops with the gun.
Police called the NBA, which alerted Knicks security. They approached him after the game in the team locker room, and Felton eventually turned himself in with his lawyer.
“He came in with his whiteshoe attorney and didn’t say a word except ‘hello,’ ” a source said.
Felton initially faced a heftier seconddegree weapons charge from cops — which would have likely landed him a mandatory jail term. But after his wife huddled with the District Attorney’s Office for four hours Tuesday afternoon, he was only charged with the lesser counts.
The felony charge carries a possible sentence of up to seven years, but it would be highly unlikely if he got that, given the fact that he hasn’t been placed with the gun yet and, so far, it’s her word against his, sources said.
Wearing red sneakers, black pants and a black sweat shirt with the words “We said love more, no war,’’ Felton didn’t say anything in court.
His mother and other family members and friends were in court to support him. He was freed on bond arranged by bail bondsman Ira Judelson.