Thousands Mourn Slain NYPD Officer Alain Schaberger

New York City Police Officer Alain Schaberger was remembered as a quiet professional with a generous heart Friday morning as thousands of cops packed a Long Island street for Schaberger’s funeral. 

Schaberger, 42, was killed in the line of duty early Sunday morning when he was and down a flight of stairs while responding to a domestic dispute call in Brooklyn.  

Det. Insp. Mark DiPaolo, commanding officer of the 84th Precinct, where Schaberger had been stationed for the past six years, called his colleague “a true cop’s cop.” 

“He cared about the community, he cared about his fellow officers and he cared about the country,” DiPaolo said of Schaberger outside Fredrick J. Chapey and Sons Funeral Home in East Islip. 

Mayor Michael Bloomberg referred to Schaberger as a “quiet, gentle soul” who dedicated his life to service.  

“Alain knew a lot about grief,” Bloomberg said of the former Naval officer who joined the NYPD in July 2001. “One of his first assignments as a police officer while he was still in the academy in the days after 9/11 was to go to checkpoints around Ground Zero and help the families who came there to cope with their horrific losses. He brought a lot of comfort to those people.” 

Addressing Schaberger’s family, including , Bloomberg said, “I think he would tell you to remember not the last tragic moment of his life, but the many wonderful moments that came before it.”

Schaberger lived in Cortlandt Manor, NY with Peguese whom he planned to marry this summer, but he was raised in East Islip, where his parents still reside.

More than a half-dozen NYPD buses were lining Main Street in the South Shore suburb by 8:30 a.m.

Police Commissioner Ray Kelly also spoke during the funeral and said Schaberger’s death was “devastating” to the entire department.

“The fact is Alain always put others before himself,” Kelly said. “We can only assume that impulse so ingrained in his character was guiding him in the early hours last Sunday morning.”

Schaberger fell 9-feet and broke his neck after police say George Villanueva, 42, who has an arrest record more than two dozen incidences deep, pushed him over a low railing. 

“Alain gave his life in performance of his one duty: protect the public,” Kelly said. 

When he wasn’t on duty, Schaberger enjoyed playing a game or two of badminton, watching the sunset and taking trips to the ice cream shop with Peguese, Bloomberg said. 

During meal breaks, Schaberger and his fellow officers would often stop by Peas & Pickles, a Dumbo deli nestled between the Brooklyn and Manhattan bridges to chat about motorcycles and have a few laughs, the mayor said. 

Despite record drops in crime, officers spoke Friday about the still ever-present danger of putting on the badge. 

“Today is a day where once again we’re shouldering a brother police officer and carrying him into a religious service,” said Patrick Lynch, president of the New York City Patrolmen's Benevolent Association. “It shows that the job of a New York City police officer, or law enforcement anyplace in this country is a difficult one.

“You never know when you take that last step off your stoop in the morning if you’re going to return,” Lynch added. “That’s the reality of policing in the New York City Police Department.”