NYPD: Officer dies after push down stairs

NEW YORK — A police officer responding to an early morning domestic violence call was killed after he was shoved over a railing by a suspect and fell nine feet down a cement stairwell, landing on his head and breaking his neck.

Police Commissioner Raymond Kelly said Officer Alain Schaberger was among those at the Brooklyn scene around 4:20 a.m. Sunday. Police were attempting to take a 42-year-old man with a history of domestic violence arrests into custody when he began to resist.

Kelly said the suspect had been shackled on one hand when he used both hands to push Schaberger over the railing. The officer fell down a stairwell which leads to the basement.

He was taken to Lutheran Hospital where he was pronounced dead.

Charges are pending against the suspect.