The ex-con charged with shoving a cop to his death in Brooklyn said Thursday the only crime he committed was roughing up his fiancé.
“The only thing I’m guilty of is domestic abuse,” George Villanueva told the Daily News from behind bars at Rikers Island.
Villanueva, 42, tussled with police trying to cuff him outside his Boerum Hill home after he threatened to kill his girlfriend Sunday. He pushed Officer Alain Schaberger, 42, who toppled 9 feet over the railing of a staircase, police said.
The 10-year veteran landed head-first in the basement stairwell and broke his neck.
“It was an accident,” said Villanueva, a convicted robber who has 30 prior arrests.
“I did not know anyone had fallen,” he said. “It all happened fast.”
Cops Tasered Villanueva five times to subdue him, a report shows.
His comments came as hundreds of well-wishers gathered at a Long Island funeral home to pay respects to the officer.
“Every officer on the midnight tour, they loved to work with him,” said Mark DiPaolo, the commanding officer of the 84th Precinct. “We are rallying up, because we want to support his family.”
Schaberger will be buried Friday at Long Island National Cemetery in Farmingdale.
(Source: NY Daily News)