A cop killed himself yesterday on his way home after finishing his shift in Queens — becoming the fourth NYPD officer to die by his own hand in less than a month, sources told The Post.
Matthew Schindler, 39, a 14-year veteran and married father of three kids, pulled his car over at about 4:30 p.m. on the eastbound side of the Long Island Expressway near Exit 40 in Jericho and shot himself under the chin, the sources said.
Minutes earlier, Schindler, a highway-safety officer, texted his sergeant to tell him he would not be seeing him anymore.
“He was one of the nicest people we ever met,” said a family friend, Ryan Proce, 38. “He’s just an all-around great guy.”
Fellow cops were called back to the 115th Precinct station house in Jackson Heights last night and told the tragic news.
Flags at the building were lowered to half-staff.
It was the fourth suicide to hit the NYPD in 2012 and the second in eight days.
On Super Bowl Sunday, Brian Saar, a 20-year veteran with twin 5-year-old daughters, shot himself at his Suffolk County home after arguing with his wife at a party, sources said.
On Jan. 19, Terrence Dean, 28, of the 111th Precinct in Queens, killed himself while on duty after getting a phone call from his fiancée, who told him she had called his precinct about his worsening depression.
Dean shot himself in the head with his service weapon while at the scene of a Queens car burglary in front of both his partner and the car’s owner.
On Jan. 15, rookie cop Patrick Werner, 23, shot himself in his parents’ home in suburban Yorktown Heights after getting into an car accident and fleeing.
Sources said he had been on his cell arguing when he crashed.
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5 Responses
To stem this new form of suicide by cop, every one of them should be disarmed — just like all the other forced victims of The Big Blight.
i dont understand the connection between NYPD and their problems, anyone see a connection?
#1, if cops would be disarmed,who would listen to them?!?
#2, who said there was a connection?
To #1 :
“Suicide by cop” does not mean when a cop commits suicide, it referes to a perp that commits an action which forces the Police to shoot at him thereby commiting suicide by “forcing” the Police t shoot at him.
To #2:
The stress of the job.
To #3
A cop will not shoot you if you “don’t listen” to them, they will shoot you if youre threatening their life.
The job is indeed stressful. When a cop is told by his supperiors to do something he is uncomfortable doing, like writing bogus summonses, eventually it get to him and after immense presure, they end it rather than face the music. Call it cowardly – but it’s an easy way out. Very sad.