High-Ranking Police Official Questioned in NYPD Corruption Probe Commits Suicide

NYPD Highway patrol Unit commanding officer Michael Ameri, was found dead in his car on Long Island Friday afternoon from a gunshot to the head, the same day he was questioned as part of an ongoing corruption investigation of his department.

The 44-year-old joined the NYPD in 1993 and became commanding officer of the department’s Highway Patrol Unit in 2014. He was found dead in his car in the parking lot of a golf course not far from his home. The details, from the New York Daily News:

Ameri’s day started with the FBI arriving at his residence for an interview, a police source said. Once the feds left, Ameri climbed into his car, drove to the golf course and took his own life, according to the source.

The commanding officer of the NYPD Highway Patrol Unit “was found deceased in his vehicle of an apparent self-inflicted gunshot wound,” NYPD spokesman Stephen Davis said in a statement.

Other officers in the highway district were also questioned about providing police escorts to two businessmen, Jona Rechnitz and Jeremy Reichberg, who are closely tied to Bill de Blasio’s recently-shuttered nonprofit Campaign for One New York. They were also reportedly involved in airborne sexcapades with high-ranking police officials.