NEW YORK — New York City’s police commissioner has declined to fire a police officer who shot and killed a man during a traffic stop, rejecting a recommendation from an administrative judge. The dead man’s family is protesting the decision.
Lt. Jonathan Rivera shot and killed 31-year-old Allan Feliz because he believed Feliz was about to run over another responding officer with his vehicle, Commissioner Jessica Tisch’s written decision said.
Tisch said Rivera, who was a sergeant at the time, made a “fair and realistic assessment of an incredibly fast-moving, dangerous situation” in which he was “required to make a split-second decision when he believed that his fellow officer’s life was at immediate risk.”
Tisch’s ruling, issued late Thursday before the July 4 holiday weekend, goes against the determination of Rosemarie Maldonado, the department’s deputy commissioner of trials, who found Rivera guilty in February of excessive force and recommended his termination.
The shooting happened around 3 p.m. on Oct. 17, 2019, when an officer said he spotted Feliz driving in an SUV without his seatbelt on. Responding officers ran his driver’s license information and found several open warrants for relatively minor infractions, including littering, spitting and disorderly conduct.
Feliz then tried to drive away, prompting a struggle in which Rivera first shot him with a Taser and then with his firearm.
Tisch said her decision is consistent with the 2020 conclusion of a separate inquiry by state Attorney General Letitia James’ office, which declined to prosecute Rivera, saying the evidence “strongly suggests” the shooting was justified.
The police officer’s union representing Rivera praised Tisch’s decision as “based on the facts and the law” and “not because it was politically safe or expedient.”
Feliz’s family and supporters, however, planned to rally outside police headquarters in lower Manhattan on Tuesday evening to denounce the commissioner’s decision. A family statement says they are “furious and devastated by Commissioner Tisch’s outrageous, cowardly and shameful decision” not to fire or even discipline Rivera.
Rally organizers said the city’s Civilian Complaint Review Board, an independent police oversight agency, has until Friday to respond to Tisch’s decision before it becomes final. The board didn’t immediately respond to an email seeking comment.