Rachel Aiello, the widow of the ex-NYPD officer Jason Aiello, who was fatally shot in a shootout ruled "suicide by cop" this summer, is preparing to file a wrongful death suit against the city. The Advance reports that a successful motion to preserve 911 tapes of the incident filed by her lawyer last month stated, "[Aiello] was armed, but there was ample opportunity to disarm him without the use of deadly force." Police responded after Aiello had escaped from a psychiatric facility where he was being treated for bipolar disorder. There were immediate tensions between the family and the NYPD following the shooting with claims by the Aiellos that Rachel was holding the weapons that previously had been in her husband's possession and that Jason had never even fired at the cops. Both officers involved with the shooting are expected to go through the standard grand jury proceedings. more ›

A lawyer representing the family of the former NYPD sergeant Jason Aiello, who was fatally shot by police outside his Staten Island home, told the Daily News, "If Jason was black, there would be a thousand people protesting outside 1 Police Plaza. The mayor would be on television apologizing. But this isn't an Al Sharpton case." Police, responding after 911 calls about Aiello, say he was armed with two guns and fired at them, so they returned fire, but lawyer Peter Antioco claims Aiello never fired and wasn't even armed when shot. Family members are saying the NYPD isn't offering to provide pallbearers or a police escort for Aiello's funeral, while his cousin said the city should pay for funeral expenses. And the Advance reports that Aiello's 7-year-old son saw the shooting, wondering, "Why did they do that?" more ›

Law enforcement sources think Jason Aiello, a former NYPD sergeant, wanted to commit "suicide by cop" yesterday. After escaping the psychiatric facility at a local hospital early Tuesday morning, Aiello was fatally shot after refusing to put down his weapons outside his Staten Island home. more ›

There was another police-involved shooting this morning: Around 7AM, retired NYPD sergeant Jason Aiello, who had escaped from a hospital's psychiatric ward, was outside his home in Rosebank, "armed with a few weapons and screaming." Police say they repeatedly asked Aiello to drop his weapons, but when he didn't, he was shot in the head. WABC 7 suggests it could have been "suicide by cop," and the police told the Advance Aiello's children were "in the immediate vicinity." Aiello had worked as a bodyguard for a Staten Island jeweler who was gunned down in May. Aiello was present and the FBI has been investigating that case, suspecting that jeweler Louis Antonelli, who may have worked with the the Genovese crime family, could have been targeted by the mob. more ›