Nov. 9--The wife of a New York City cop who committed suicide last year said Monday he was distraught after giving the order to use a stun gun during a confrontation that led to the death of a Brooklyn man.

Susan Pigott, in her first public comments since her husband, Lt. Michael Pigott of Sayville, shot himself to death in October 2008, said he was depressed and saddened after ordering an officer to use a stun gun to subdue Iman Morales, 35, in a standoff with police in Bedford-Stuyvesant, Brooklyn. Morales, a psychiatric patient standing atop a metal security gate container, fell 10 feet and died when his head struck a sidewalk.

Pigott was stripped of his gun and badge and he was reassigned to desk duty while the incident was investigated. The NYPD said the use of the stun gun was an apparent violation of departmental guidelines.

"It was very stressful and upsetting," Susan Pigott told reporters Monday at the Bohemia offices of her attorney, Rodney S. Lapidus.

"That was his life. They ripped his heart out when they took his gun and his badge."

On Oct. 2, 2008, eight days after the confrontation in which Morales died, Pigott went to the NYPD's Emergency Services Unit headquarters at Floyd Bennett Field and killed himself with another officer's service weapon.

In a note found after he died, Michael Pigott took responsibility for giving the order to fire the stun gun and said he was "sorry for the mess."

"I was trying to protect my guys that day. ... I can't bear to lose my family and go to jail," the handwritten note says.

Susan Pigott filed suit against the NYPD on Nov. 3 in State Supreme Court in Brooklyn.

In a notice of claim previously filed in State Supreme Court, Susan Pigott and her attorney said statements made to the media by Commissioner Ray Kelly, NYPD spokesman Paul Browne and unnamed supervisors caused Pigott to be "humiliated, distraught, depressed ... [and] fearful of being criminally prosecuted and incarcerated; and caused him to commit suicide."

Police and prosecutors have said they didn't intend to pursue criminal charges against Pigott.

Morales' family has filed a $10-million lawsuit against the NYPD. Susan Pigott said Monday she had no indication her husband was contemplating suicide.

The day before he died, the couple had dinner and went to bed. Late that night, Michael Pigott watched video of the stun gun incident to see whether there was any other way he could have protected himself and other officers, Susan Pigott said.

She said she woke up at 4:30 a.m. the next morning and found her husband was not in bed. Thinking he was working on his computer, she went downstairs but did not find him there, she said.

His car was not in the driveway, so Susan Pigott said she thought he took a ride to clear his head.

Later that morning, she said her mother called and told her Michael Pigott had committed suicide. Susan Pigott said her brother had seen the news on television.

Recalling her husband's reluctance to discuss Morales' death, Susan Pigott said she wished her husband had reached out to her.

"I could have helped him," she said.

To see more of Newsday, or to subscribe to the newspaper, go to http://www.newsday.com

Copyright (c) 2009, Newsday, Melville, N.Y.

Distributed by McClatchy-Tribune Information Services.

For reprints, email This e-mail address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it , call 800-374-7985 or 847-635-6550, send a fax to 847-635-6968, or write to The Permissions Group Inc., 1247 Milwaukee Ave., Suite 303, Glenview, IL 60025, USA.