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.
“Oh, God, not another one,” said Bill Genet, head of a volunteer group that counsels troubled cops.
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 with his girlfriend when he crashed.
Troubled cops can call the outside counseling group POPPA, Police Organization Providing Peer Assistance, headed by Genet.
Very sad. But what was the reason of suicide?
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