Murder trial opens for man in fatal cop push

He knew a push could kill.

A raging ex-con had murder on his mind when he shoved a cop to his death off the stoop of a Brooklyn brownstone last year, prosecutors insisted yesterday as George Villanueva went on trial for the death of Officer Alain Schaberger.

The 10-year NYPD veteran landed on his head in the stairwell to a basement apartment when he plunged almost 10 feet over the stoop's railing after trying to slap cuffs on Villanueva.

"This wasn't just some accident," prosecutor Mark Hale told jurors as the first-degree murder trial opened in Brooklyn Supreme Court. "His intent was one thing and one thing only."

Schaberger and three other officers were trying to corral Villanueva on the stoop outside his family's Boerum Hill home when the accused cop-killer's girlfriend got out of a police car and began yelling, "That's him!"

"From the people who were on that stoop, there was one person who knew that danger was there — that person was George Villanueva," Hale said. "He knew what the consequences of going over that railing were."

Schaberger and Officer Celmira Velazquez had been called to break up a March 13, 2011, domestic dispute between Villanueva and girlfriend Kim Dykstra at her Bergen Street SRO after the ex-con showed up "belligerent" and "angry" — and in violation of a restraining order.

Then, he bolted past the cops just before they pulled up, leaving them to put Dykstra in their car and go in search of Villanueva.

Dykstra directed them to the Bergen Street brownstone of Villanueva's parents, where Velazquez said he was "pretending to be asleep."

The boozed-up boyfriend then snapped, Velazquez said, when he spotted Dykstra while cops tried to control him on the stoop.

"He yelled, 'No!' " Velazquez said. "He put two hands on Schaberger's chest and pushed him over."

Cops Tasered Villanueva three or four times before Velazquez went into the basement apartment's stairwell to check on her mortally wounded partner, who, she said, was "unconscious."

Defense lawyer Kleon Andreadis insisted there was no intent to kill on Villanueva's part.

jose.martinez@nypost.com

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