A police officer aims a Taser gun at Inman Morales seconds before the distraught man plunged to his death

A police lieutenant has apparently committed suicide days after he ordered another officer to fire a stun gun at a naked, distraught man who then fell to his death.

A police official says the lieutenant was found at Floyd Bennett Field in Brooklyn, New York, early today, dead of an apparent self-inflicted gunshot wound. It wasn't clear when he died.

The lieutenant had ordered another officer to shock Inman Morales, who fell nearly 10ft to his death in Brooklyn, last week.

The lieutenant was stripped of his gun and badge after the incident, and Police Commissioner Raymond Kelly ordered refresher training on how to deal with emotionally disturbed people.

Morales, 35, was pronounced dead at a hospital after his fall. Police said he suffered serious head trauma when he hit the sidewalk.

The death of the man, who witnesses and neighbors said had become distraught and had threatened to kill himself earlier in the day, raised questions over why Morales was shocked with the stun gun when there was no inflatable bag placed on the sidewalk to catch him if he fell.

'They didn't try to brace his fall. They did nothing. I've seen a lot of things in my time. But what they did was wrong,' said neighbour Kirk Giddens, 39, in the Daily News.

In a video posted on the website of the New York Post, Morales could be seen clambering along a building's fire escape until he reached a ledge and begins swinging a large fluorescent light bulb at officers below.

One of the officers raised a Taser at Morales, who froze and toppled over headfirst.

Inman Morales, right, fell to his death after being stunned by police with a Taser gun while he was standing on the ledge of a building

Officers are allowed to use Tasers if they believe psychologically distressed people are a danger to themselves or to others.

Deputy Commissioner Paul J. Browne, of New York City Police Department, said: 'As an Emergency Service Unit (ESU) officer was in the process of securing himself on the second-floor fire escape, Morales jabbed at him with an 8ft-long flourescent light.

'An ESU lieutenant directed another ESU officer on the sidewalk to employ a Taser against Morales, who fell to the sidewalk, striking his head. He was removed to Kings County Hospital where he was pronounced dead.

'While officers had radioed for an inflatable bag as the incident unfolded, it had not yet arrived at the scene when Morales fell. None of the ESU officers on the scene were positioned to break his fall, nor did they devise a plan in advance to do so.

Morales was standing on the ledge outside this building when he fell to his death

The order to employ the Taser under these circumstances appears to have violated guidelines, re-issued June 4, 2008, which specifically state that 'when possible, the CED should not be used…in situations where the subject may fall from an elevated surface.

The lieutenant who directed the use of the Taser was placed on modified assignment before his death.

The officer who fired the Taser has been assigned to administrative duties.

Thousands of city police sergeants began carrying Tasers on their belts this year. The pistol-shaped weapons fire barbs up to 35ft and deliver 50,000-volt shocks to immobilise people.