4 officers with LI ties killed in 2011

Four police officers with connections to Long Island were killed in the line of duty in 2011 -- the deadliest year for cops since 9/11.

From 2002 to 2010, three officers who either worked or lived on the Island died in the line of duty, according to published reports.

Each of the deaths this year had a "big impact on our family," said Paul Schaberger, 64, of East Islip, whose son, Alain, an NYPD officer, was killed in March during a domestic violence call in Brooklyn.

Last week, Schaberger said he attended the funeral service for NYPD Det. Peter Figoski, who was killed after responding to a Brooklyn robbery.

Schaberger said he feels like he belongs to "a tragic club" of slain officers' families.

"We understand the tragedy of it much more," he said.

The 2011 officer fatalities:

Nassau County Police Officer Michael J. Califano, 44, of Wantagh, was killed Feb. 5 when a flatbed truck slammed into his police cruiser, parked on the shoulder of the Long Island Expressway in Old Westbury. Califano, a 12-year veteran of the police force, had pulled over a truck for insufficient lighting.

The flatbed truck driver, John Kaley, 25, of New Britain, Conn., was charged with criminally negligent homicide, third-degree assault and failing to move over for an emergency vehicle. He is awaiting trial.

On March 12, Geoffrey J. Breitkopf, a member of the Nassau County Police Bureau of Special Operations, arrived at a police-shooting scene at a home in Massapequa Park. An officer with the MTA police mistook Breitkopf, a plainclothes officer, for an armed suspect and shot him.

Breitkopf, 40, of Selden, was a 12-year veteran of the police force.

Schaberger, the NYPD officer, fell 9 feet and broke his neck after a domestic violence suspect pushed him over a railing in Boerum Hill, Brooklyn, on March 13.

Schaberger, 42, a nine-year police veteran, grew up in East Islip.

The man charged with his murder, George Villanueva, 42, of Brooklyn, has pleaded not guilty.

Figoski, 47, a 22-year NYPD veteran who lived in West Babylon, was shot and killed by a robbery suspect Dec. 12 in the Cypress Hills section of Brooklyn.

Two suspects were trying to escape when they ran into Figoski, police said. He was shot once in the face at close range.

Lamont Pride, 27, of Greensboro, N.C., pleaded not guilty to first-degree murder. Four other men have pleaded not guilty to second-degree murder in connection with the incident.