March 30, 2015Mayor Bill de Blasio: …and listen, everyone – this is an extraordinary day for New York City. We celebrate 194 years of Greek independence and the incredible – the incredible role that Greece has played in the world and that the Greek-American community has played here in New York City – long, long, deep ties between the U.S. and Greece, New York City and Greece.Greece is the birthplace of democracy, and we today benefit from the contributions of Greece to the world. Let’s celebrate today this strong and vibrant community here in New York City, but let’s celebrate what Greece has done for the whole world as well. Thank you and God bless![Applause][…]Mayor: You know, we really rely upon the NYPD to keep us safe, including at parades like this. One of our officers was injured a short time ago in an incident with one of the police horses. He’s been taken off to the hospital. Obviously we are hoping and praying that he will recover fully. It’s a ankle injury, but we’ll have more details on it in a little bit. But we – with some of his commanding officers and the governor, we went over to at least over our concern to him and, you know, wish him a speedy recovery. So we’ll have more on that a little bit later.Question: Do you know what happened to him –Mayor: The – had an incident with his horse, but we don’t have all the details yet.Question: [inaudible]Mayor: Yeah. All right, go ahead.Question: Thank you, Mr. Mayor – I appreciate your patience.Mayor: Go ahead.Question: So we understand that [inaudible] –Mayor: There’s one – one body has been discovered at the site of the explosion. There’s an identification process underway and notification of family underway. We’re not in a position yet to confirm publicly the identity, but we will be shortly.Question: Do you know any of the circumstances on where the person was found and if the body was in tact?Mayor: We’ll have more details, again, when we get to the public notification, but from the best of my knowledge, it’s broadly what we anticipated from the previous reports you’ve heard from FDNY and NYPD, but we’ll get – once families have been notified, we’ll be able to say more.Question: What else are we learning about what happened in that explosion?Mayor: The investigation’s ongoing. You know, as I’ve said, we – we have our suspicions based on what we know so far, but until we’ve done the full investigation, we won’t be able to confirm it.Question: Can you tell us about your proud Greek Independence Day march today?Mayor: I am wearing my Greek colors today. I’m very proud to be here. It’s an amazing community. It’s a community I’ve gotten to know over the years. I lived in Astoria for two years – that was one of my high points of my life in New York City, soaking in the Greek culture of Astoria – but a wonderful parade because the pride is so strong. And I love that so many people come from Greece to participate in this parade, which makes it even more authentic, so it’s wonderful.Question: Mr. Mayor, when you were saying you had suspicions, which ones are you talking about?Mayor: I talked about at the press conference back on Friday that, you know, there’s reason to believe so far that there may have been inappropriate tampering with the gas lines within the building, but until we get full evidence, we can’t conclude that.Question: Is this something that’s been ongoing that we just haven’t known about, and that this might be coming up to light – this activity of tampering and trying to, like, syphon off gas from other people?Mayor: This is one building, and the situation appears to be particular to this building. But again, until we do a full investigation, we can’t draw larger conclusions. We’re not hearing of a particular trend at this point in time, but we’re going to look at everything when we have the full conclusions.Question: It’s budget season in Albany. I’m curious what you – what you would say the stakes are, and what happens if a budget really does come in late this year?Mayor: Sure. Well, first of all, there’s still time for a budget. Obviously we have not heard of an agreement yet, at this hour, today, but there still is a chance of that being reached today. My concerns are the same ones I started this process with when I testified a few months ago in Albany. Obviously we want fair funding for New York City schools – we’ve been waiting for that for almost a decade. There was a court decision by the New York State Court of Appeals that still has not been implemented. So that’s a key concern, so we’re pushing hard on that front. We’re pushing hard to make sure that the things we have to do for our own schools we can do – obviously starting with mayoral control of education. So, you know, we’ll know a lot more in the next few hours. I think it will be resolved, but we won’t know until we see the day transpire.Question: Mr. Mayor–Question: Can you tell–Mayor: Go ahead.Question: Can you tell us what happened with the man on the horse? I arrived late – I apologize if you’re repeating.Mayor: Yeah, no – the officer was one of our mounted officers. There was an incident with his horse. We don’t have all the details yet. He has an injury to his ankle. I was able to go over with some of his commanding officers and the governor and just spend a moment with him, just offering our sympathies. He’s been taken off to the hospital. So we’ll have more to say on that later. Obviously, again, we rely on the NYPD every day. We rely on the NYPD to make a parade like this possible. So it’s very, very unfortunate that someone in the line of duty suffered this injury, but hopefully it’s something that the doctors can work on right away and he’ll have a speedy recovery.Question: What did he say to you?Mayor: He was obviously in a lot of pain. He said thank you for, you know, the sympathy, but he was obviously in a lot of pain, and you know, the most important thing was to get him quickly to the hospital and relieve the pain.Question: Thank you.Mayor: Okay – anyone else? Okay, thanks, everyone.