A young police officer was shot and killed during a routine traffic stop in New York on Monday night by a career criminal with 21 previous arrests.
Officer Jonathan Diller, 31, had been on the job for just three years when he was shot and killed while asking a driver why he had parked at a bus stop.
Her alleged killer, Guy Rivera, 34, had been repeatedly jailed for violent and drug-related offenses and was arrested on a weapons charge in April last year, just yards from tonight’s murder.
Officer Diller leaves behind a young widow, Stephanie, and a one-year-old son at their Long Island home, and New York Mayor Eric Adams paid tribute to the couple when he announced the news last night.
‘Can I say it more clearly? It’s the good guys versus the bad guys,” he said at a news conference from the Queens hospital where the officer was pronounced dead.
Officer Jonathan Diller, 31, of New York’s 105th Precinct, had only been on the job for three years.
Officer Diller lived with his wife Stephanie and their one-year-old son (pictured) in Massapequa Park on Long Island in New York City.
Suspect Guy Rivera was shot at the scene by a colleague of Officer Diller and taken to the same Queen’s Hospital as the fatally wounded officer.
“The same bad people, doing bad things to good people, in less than a year are back on the streets with another weapon,” Adams said.
Diller and a colleague were working in Far Rockaway as part of the New York Police Department’s Critical Response Team focused on automobile crimes.
When they asked the 34-year-old suspect to get out of the car, he refused, pointed a gun at the officers and fired, hitting Diller in the torso, just below his bulletproof vest.
Rivera “was asked to leave the car, given legal orders numerous times to get out of the car, but he refused,” said NYPD Chief of Detectives Joseph Kenny.
“And when the officer pulled him out of the car, instead of getting out of the car, he shot our officer.”
Witnesses heard gunshots at 5:50 p.m., less than two blocks from the NYPD’s 101st Precinct precinct.
“It happened so fast,” Melissa Morgan, 39, told Daily News.
‘The policeman fell to the ground and the other officers pulled the two guys out of the car. I was running for cover.
“He shot a police officer, it’s incredible.”
“He was rolling on the ground saying, ‘I’ve been shot, I’ve been shot,'” another witness said.
Witness Deon Peters said he saw two people, including the officer, on the ground.
‘He was moving, he was saying ‘They hit me, they hit me!’ Giving location and all that,” Peters told the New York Post‘Like I was crying.’
Diller managed to wrestle the gun from his killer after the other officer returned fire and struck the gunman in the back.
The gun recovered from the scene of the police shooting
Neighbors heard gunshots at 5:50 p.m., less than two blocks from the NYPD’s 101st Precinct precinct, before seeing the fatally wounded officer lying in the street.
‘Can I say it more clearly?’ New York Mayor Eric Adams said at a news conference: “It’s the good guys against the bad guys.”
Diller and a colleague were working in Far Rockaway as part of the New York Police Department’s Critical Response Team focused on automobile crimes.
Radio interceptions recorded colleagues frantically calling for an ambulance moments later.
‘We need a bus here ASAP!’ one yelled, ‘We have an officer shot!’
The gunman was in the passenger seat when he shot through the window at the officer.
He was shot in the back when police returned fire before both wounded men were taken to Jamaica Hospital Medical Center in Queens.
The 41-year-old driver of the car, identified by sources as Lindy Jones, was arrested and a firearm was recovered at the scene.
“The line-of-duty murder of NYPD Officer Jonathan Diller is a tragedy for the NYPD and all the New Yorkers it so bravely protected,” tweeted former Police Commissioner Bill Bratton.
‘He was a guardian of our city and now a guardian at the gates of heaven. “His legacy will forever be one of brave, selfless service and the ultimate sacrifice.”