Michael Piggot, the lieutenant who ordered a group of NYPD to taser a mentally ill man on a fire escape before the man fell to his death, commited suicide today. Piggot had previously been stripped of his duties following his order to taser Inman Morales, after he was found swinging a giant lightbulb around naked and screaming incoherently 10 feet above the ground. Morales then fell facefirst into the pavement and was pronounced dead at the scene.
Sad days indeed, but how long do you think until this "ripped from the headlines" story becomes a plotline on of the various Law and Order incarnations?
The two police officers involved in the death of mentally unstable Brooklyn man Inman Morales have been stripped of their field duties following an investigation into the incident. Neither Officer Nicholas Marchesona, who Tasered the unarmed Morales off a 10-foot high ledge, causing him to fall to his death, or Lieutenant Michael Piggot, who ordered Morales Tasered, were fired.
After the jump, Piggot and Morales' slap on the wrist in the style of a 1950's sitcom, where it belongs.
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No, seriously, the NYPD will kill you. "Even if I'm a naked, unhinged man wielding only a light bulb?" you ask. Yes, even then.
We can be sure of this because that's exactly what Inman Morales was: nude, screaming non sequiturs and maniacally waving around a neon light on a ledge about 10 feet off the ground in Bed-Stuy, Brooklyn. Police in a smaller town might have let Morales shout himself hoarse until he got hungry enough to go back inside. New York police shot Morales with a Taser, subsequently causing him to fall face-first, temporarily paralyzed, into the street below. The 35-year-old died a few hours later in Kings County Hospital.
Witnesses say one of the only intelligible parts of Morales' ranting was this: "You're going to kill me."
Police are reviewing whether or not Tasing Morales was proper protocol.
Video of the incident after the jump, because that's just how the New York Post (and we, apparently) do.
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