Widow of Cop Involved in Stun Gun Death Sues NYPD
An NYPD lieutenant who committed suicide was treated by his superiors as if he had done something wrong and was afraid he might be prosecuted for ordering officers to use a stun gun on a man who fell to his death, the lieutenant’s widow said Monday.
An NYPD lieutenant who committed suicide was treated by his superiors as if he had done something wrong and was afraid he might be prosecuted for ordering officers to use a stun gun on a man who fell to his death, the lieutenant's widow said Monday.
"They ripped his heart out," Susan Pigott said of her husband, Michael. "He was treated so unfairly."
Her attorney has filed notice he intends to sue the city, NYPD and department brass over the death, saying disciplinary action against him caused "extreme emotional anguish, humiliation, depression, fear and shame."
The highly decorated officer with the NYPD's elite Emergency Services Unit killed himself in October 2008, eight days after ordering the use of the stun gun during a Brooklyn standoff with an emotionally disturbed man.
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