An explosive verdict was reached Wednesday night in the slaying of hero NYPD cop Jonathan Diller — with the jury acquitting the shooter of the top charge of first-degree murder and settling on manslaughter.
Guy Rivera, 36, who fatally shot the officer and married dad outside a cell-phone store in Queens two years ago, was convicted on all of the lesser charges, including aggravated manslaughter, attempted murder of Diller’s partner and weapons raps.
Rivera killed Diller in Far Rockaway on March 25, 2024, in a caught-on-video scuffle with New York’s Finest.
Cops were investigating a suspicious vehicle when Rivera shot Diller and had a gun pointed at a police sergeant’s chest when another officer at the scene shot and wounded the goon, authorities said — with the drama captured on heart-stopping bodycam footage.
Rivera, who was a passenger in the parked Kia Soul, was arrested at the scene along with driver Lindy Jones, while Diller was rushed to the hospital where he was pronounced dead.
Jones is awaiting trial on felony gun possession charges.
As the deliberations began Wednesday, Rivera’s mother sat in the front row of the courtroom just 6 feet from her son — and sobbed when bodycam footage of the fatal shooting was played after the jury requested a second look.
Dressed in purple, the woman covered her mouth with her hands shaking as the footage played out, then pulled a tissue from her purse to wipe her tears.
During his closing arguments, defense attorney Jamal Johnson claimed that Rivera didn’t intend to shoot and kill Diller. He tried to sway jurors away from the top charge by insisting that the prosuection failed to establish beyond a reasonable doubt that his client meant to kill Diller — which is required for a murder conviction.
Johnson suggested surveillance camera footage showed his client didn’t have eyes on the cop when he was shot. He said Diller’s partner, Sgt. Sasha Rosen, allegedly reached into the vehicle before the gun fired to grab Rivera’s firearm — and argued that the ensuing struggle caused the gun to accidentally discharge.
The defense attorney insisted that Rivera could see the guns of other officers aimed at him and knew that firing at a cop could turn into a fatal mistake.
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Rivera faces up to 90 years without parole for all four of the counts he was convicted of, with a max of 40 years on the attempted-slay rap.
He would have faced a maximum sentence of life in prison without parole if convicted of the top first-degree murder charge.
The post Shocking Verdict Reached in Shooting Death of NYPD Hero Cop Jonathan Diller appeared first on American Renaissance.
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