NEW YORK (AP) — A New York City police officer was shot and killed Monday during a traffic stop, the city’s mayor said. It marked the first slaying of an NYPD officer in two years.
Join our WhatsApp groupSubscribe to our Daily Roundup Email
“We lost one of our sons today and it is extremely painful. It is extremely painful,” Mayor Eric Adams said, addressing reporters at a hospital in Queens.
The shooting happened just before 5:50 p.m. in the Far Rockaway section of Queens, police said. Officer Jonathan Diller and his partner were part of the NYPD Community Response Team and were conducting a traffic stop at the time.
As they approached the vehicle, the suspect pointed a gun toward the officers and shot Diller beneath his bullet-proof vest, said Police Commissioner Edward Caban, who identified the slain officer on X, formerly known as Twitter. He said Diller’s partner returned fire and shot one of the people in the vehicle, who was taken to an area hospital.
Diller was taken to Jamaica Hospital Medical Center but could not be saved, officials said. A three-year veteran of the police department, he was married with a young child, Caban said.
“We struggle to find the words to express the tragedy of losing one of our own,” Caban said on X.
The police department’s chief of detectives, Joseph Kenny, said the two officers had initially initiated contact with the driver and his passenger because he was parked at a bus stop illegally. “He was asked to leave the car. He was given a lawful order numerous times to step out of the car. He refused. And when the officers took him out of the car, rather than stepping out of the car, he shot our officer.”
Witnesses described a chaotic scene.
“It happened so fast,” one bystander, Melissa Morgan, 39, told the Daily News. “The police officer fell on the floor and the other officers dragged the two guys out of the car. I was running for cover.”
Another witness, Deon Peters, told the New York Post he saw Diller on the ground.
“He was moving, he was saying ‘I’m hit, I’m hit,’” Peters said.
The slaying was the first of an NYPD officer since 2022, when two officers, Wilbert Mora, 27, and Jason Rivera, 22, were ambushed in a Harlem apartment building after responding to a domestic disturbance call.
Adams, who said he met with Diller’s grieving widow, called the shooting a “senseless act of violence.”
“Can I say it any clearer? It is the good guys against the bad guys,” he said. “And these bad guys are violent. They carry guns. And the symbol of our public safety, which is that police uniform, they have a total disregard for.”
Patrick Hendry, president of the Police Benevolent Association of New York, expressed anger over the shooting.
“These attacks on New York City police officers have to end right now,” he said. “We have a family upstairs that’s devastated. We have police officers in this hallway who lost a brother. It has to end now.”
I’m sure the Diller family is comforted, knowing that our Attorney General Letitia James is busy harrasing the former white President, Donald Trump. Letitia James is keeping all New Yorkers safe.
Why hasn’t the name and race of the “alleged” suspect been released?! The dead officer’s name has been released.
“And these bad guys are violent. They carry guns. And the symbol of our public safety, which is that police uniform, they have a total disregard for.” Couldn’t have said it any better referring to our politicians, especially the State politicians who cut the legs off of laws punishing criminals.
Heard it on the radio. Sounds Puerto Rican/Hispanic. I’m sure the VIN will update us with that info in the morning.
Another NYPD Officer gunned down in the street while on duty by Career-Criminals with countless priors & arrests on record, who should have been locked up long ago & NOT let out yet again. Every Pol in NYC & especially NYS bears responsibility here for coddling dangerous criminals who are allowed to roam wild with no fear of consequences. Afterall, it’s only the, “fear of perception!”
But let’s keep blindly voting for Democrats, because our “Askanim” told us to!!
Sorry but all of the funding, programs & dirty-money from corrupt city & state Politicians is NOT worth the price! I am surprised that more Rabbonim have not been more publicly vocal about this. The reality is, things will only get WORSE in NYC. Adams has lost all control & is way in over his head. This is who we’re relying to protect us ????
Start with blaming Democrat voters. Cuomo, who’s being sued for the covid nursing home deaths, is leading in the polls for mayor, should he run . Can you believe that ?