Boyfriend of woman shot dead by cops blames her alcohol abuse for the confrontation

The boyfriend of the Queens woman shot dead by police said her alcohol abuse caused the confrontation.

Ed Rogers, who has owned the Maspeth home where it happened since 1988, told reporters not to blame the NYPD for the fatal shooting of Susan Muller, 54.

“It shouldn’t be a story about trigger-happy cops. it should be a story about the abuse and use of alcohol,” he said of his girlfriend of five years . “Because if she didn’t use alcohol this incident never would’ve happened. So don’t blame the police department. She was a beautiful person.”

Rogers was interviewed at 4 a.m. as he drunk a beer on the porch of his home on 69th St. near 52nd Road.

“I’m very sad what happened,” he said. “We talked about a lot of things. One of the last things we talked about was the movie Bill W, all about alcoholism. And Susan really would’ve appreciated that because she had a problem and I have a problem. It (her problem) happened a long time ago. She would drink, and not drink for a couple of weeks, and then just get started again.”

On Monday about 5:25 p.m., police officers from the 112th Precinct responded to a 911 call from Muller about a burglary. When four cops arrived, she lunged at them with a 10-inch kitchen knife

The officers opened fire. Witnesses said they fired four times, killing her.

“A total of 50 seconds passed from the arrival to shots fired,” NYPD Chief of Detectives Dermot Shea said Monday. “She followed them in and came at the officers with the knife.”

Two of the responding officers wore body cameras, but it’s not clear if the shooting was caught on tape.

“One officer ordered her to put it down. We know that because there was body camera video,” Shea said. Another officer opened fire three times, Shea said.

Police believe the woman may have been emotionally disturbed, and officers have responded to several past calls at the house, sources said.