Taser death double tragedy with officer's suicide

Iman Morales, a man in crisis and mentally ill, is dead. Now, Police LT. Michael Pigott is dead. Two tragedies. Two families left behind grieving and friends wondering what they could have done differently. This is what happens when law enforcement officers are not aware of the difference between someone who is "evil dangerous" or "wounded dangerous" leading them to make the wrong decisions.

Police officers have to make snap decisions all the time with lives on the line. They need all they can have behind those decisions. Without all the knowledge possible, more tragedies like this will happen.

Official: Cop commits suicide after stun gun death
Story Highlights
NYPD official says a lieutenant is dead of an apparent suicide

Lieutenant recently gave orders that resulted in a man falling to his death

Unidentified lieutenant was stripped of his gun and badge after the incident



NEW YORK (AP) -- A police lieutenant committed suicide Thursday, days after he ordered another officer to fire a stun gun at a naked, distraught man who then fell to his death, police said.

The body of Lt. Michael Pigott, a 21-year police veteran, was found in a police locker room at a former airfield in Brooklyn, New York, dead apparently of a self-inflicted gunshot wound, said Paul Browne, deputy commissioner for public information. He used a weapon that was not his, police said.

Pigott had been stripped of his gun and badge and reassigned to desk duty after the September 24 case in which police, summoned by the mother of an emotionally disturbed man, fired a Taser stun gun as he perched on a ledge.

The man, Iman Morales, fell 10 feet to his death as onlookers screamed. An onlooker's video of the encounter was seen on news stations and posted on the Web.

Almost immediately, police said the use of the stun gun appeared to violate department guidelines, which explicitly bar their use "in situations where the subject may fall from an elevated surface."
click post title for more