Cop's suicide shocks colleagues, Taser victim's family - Long Island (NY) Newsday

BY ROCCO PARASCANDOLA

Lt. Michael Pigott turned 46 yesterday, but before the sun rose, he slipped out of his Sayville home, drove to his former command in Brooklyn and fired a single bullet into his head, ending a life tormented since his order to Taser a psychiatric patient led to that man's death, according to police officials and sources.

Pigott, a respected 21-year-veteran of the New York Police Department, was worried he could lose his job and be indicted, according to several police sources involved in the investigation into the death of Iman Morales, 35. Morales died Sept. 24 after a 10-foot fall outside his Bedford-Stuyvesant building. The sources were familiar with the contents of the suicide note and the concerns Pigott expressed to colleagues after Morales' death.

Yesterday, shortly before 6 a.m., Pigott pulled into Floyd Bennett Field, which houses the Emergency Service Unit, took a 9-mm Glock from another officer's locker and committed suicide.

Nearby was a photo of his wife and children and a note. He didn't want his family to see him get arrested, according to sources familiar with the note, and he didn't want anyone to blame Officer Nicholas Marchesano, who fired the Taser at Morales on his order.

"It's obvious how torn up he was over what happened," one police source said.

Earlier this week, the Emergency Service lieutenant had put on a stoic face, according to people who spoke to him after the victim's death. Pigott attended NYPD-mandated counseling sessions and spoke frankly, if measuredly, to a Newsday reporter outside his Sayville home - his only public comments.

"I am truly sorry for what happened to Mr. Morales," Pigott had said. "I feel terrible about what happened to the man."

He would not discuss what had happened, but suggested his career would never be the same.

"I've been a police officer for 21 years," Pigott said. "And I loved being with the Emergency Service Unit."

Pigott was reassigned by Police Commissioner Ray Kelly to Fleet Services in Queens, and was placed on modified duty, with his gun and shield taken from him. Sources said investigators believe Pigott went to Floyd Bennett Field because he has a locker there and believed he would be able to get a gun.

Yesterday morning, news of the suicide spread quickly. Pigott's ESU colleagues rushed to Kings County Medical Center where Pigott was taken, and saluted when his body was brought out. At Police Headquarters, Kelly issued a statement offering his condolences and noted Pigott "served with dedication for 21 years."

In Greenwich Village, mourners gathered for Morales' funeral also heard the news. "It's horrible," Morales' aunt, Ann DeJesus Negron, said after Morales' funeral at Our Lady of Pompeii Church. "This is not the justice we want. This really disturbs the whole family. This is not something we would want anyone to go through."

In Sayville, meanwhile, some of Pigott's colleagues gathered at his home to console his family and to keep reporters away.

Some neighbors praised Pigott as a good father and a welcome presence in their community. "That's intense," neighbor Tom DiFiore said after hearing about the news. "That's sad."

Morales suffered from depression, schizophrenia and bipolar disorder. The day of the confrontation, he was naked and talked about dying. He went down a fourth-floor fire escape to a storefront security gate container.

Police were called and Morales, waving a fluorescent light tube from the storefront, kept them at bay for 20 minutes before he was hit with a Taser. The 5,000 volts of electricity temporarily incapacitated him and he fell 10 feet, dying a short time later.

The NYPD the next day said use of the Taser was an apparent violation of departmental guidelines, which prohibit employing the Taser "in situations where the subject may fall from an elevated surface."

Marchesano, on desk duty since Morales' death, could not be reached. An officer posted outside his Staten Island home said the family declined to comment.

Maria Alvarez and staff writer Zachary R. Dowdy contributed to this story.

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