{"id":161940,"date":"2026-03-12T23:50:42","date_gmt":"2026-03-12T23:50:42","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/161940\/"},"modified":"2026-03-12T23:50:42","modified_gmt":"2026-03-12T23:50:42","slug":"slain-nypd-cop-jonathan-dillers-wife-tells-jury-of-her-anguish-after-he-was-shot-in-queens","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/161940\/","title":{"rendered":"Slain NYPD cop Jonathan Diller\u2019s wife tells jury of her anguish after he was shot in Queens"},"content":{"rendered":"

Slain NYPD Officer Jonathan Diller\u2019s<\/a> wife told jurors on Thursday that their last conversation was about making up for lost time.<\/p>\n

Diller, who was shot to death by an ex-con on a Queens street<\/a> nearly two years ago, was supposed to have the day off, and had started it by sharing a cup of coffee with Stephanie Diller before being called in for a shift at the last minute.<\/p>\n

\"OfficerNYPD Officer Jonathan Diller (NYPD)<\/p>\n

The husband and father packed his lunch and got ready to go to work.<\/p>\n

\u201cHe said, \u2018I love you,’\u201d the widow recalled. \u201cI said, \u2018I love you, too. Be safe always.\u2019\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cAnd he kissed my hand,\u201d she said. \u201cAnd that was the last time I saw him.\u201d<\/p>\n

But she would talk with him again. Later in the day, Jonathan called her to let her know he was skipping his meal break.<\/p>\n

\u201dSo we can have dinner together,\u201d he told her.<\/p>\n

\u201cJonathan said, \u2018I love you. See you soon,’\u201d she said.<\/p>\n

\"JonathanJonathan Diller’s wife, Stephanie, and son, Ryan, are pictured during the first anniversary memorial mass for NYPD Detective First Grade Jonathan Diller at St. Agnes Cathedral in Rockville Centre, New York, on Tuesday, March 25, 2025. (NYPD)<\/p>\n

A short time later, a neighbor called to see if Stephanie had heard from her husband. The neighbor had heard that a cop from Queens\u2019 101st Precinct had been shot, and she feared the worst.<\/p>\n

\u201cAnd I said, \u2018Well, I just talked to him,\u201d the wife recalled. \u201c\u2018It\u2019s not him. I\u2019m making dinner.\u2019\u201d<\/p>\n

But she started texting Diller, and he wasn\u2019t answering, and when she checked his phone\u2019s location, he was in the hospital.<\/p>\n

\"StephanieStephanie Diller (left), the widow of NYPD Officer Jonathan Diller, leaves the courtroom during a break in the murder trial of her husband\u2019s accused killer, Guy Rivera, Tuesday, March 10, 2026 in Queens, New York. (Barry Williams\/ New York Daily News)<\/p>\n

\u201cSo I called my brother and my dad and said, \u2018Can you come over, because I think something\u2019s wrong and I\u2019m starting to spiral,\u2019\u201d she said. \u201cI opened the door to get ready for them and my phone started buzzing.\u201d<\/p>\n

It was her husband\u2019s former NYPD partner.<\/p>\n

\u201cAnd in that moment, I knew it must be John,\u201d she said. \u201c\u2018Is it him? Is it John?\u2019 I heard him crying as he said, \u2018It is.\u2019\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cHow bad is it?\u201d she recalled asking him.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt\u2019s bad,\u201d the former partner said. \u201cThey\u2019re gonna come get you.\u201d<\/p>\n

As she spoke before the court, Stephanie Diller touched on her life with her husband, the years they dated and the 3-year-old son they shared.<\/p>\n

\"OfficerNYPD Officer Jonathan Diller with his son. (NYC PBA)<\/p>\n

Stephanie, an assistant nurse manager at Good Samaritan Hospital, said she went into nurse mode at the hospital, where doctors tried desperately to save Diller\u2019s life.<\/p>\n

\u201cI just started panic-nursing, and I was asking them, where was he shot, did he have a pulse, did he have consciousness, did he get blood?\u201d she said.<\/p>\n

The hospital staff told her to take a deep breath and sit down.<\/p>\n

Then the trauma surgeon who worked on Diller, Robert Laskowski, came out with an update.<\/p>\n

\u201cI looked up and I said, \u2018I\u2019m John\u2019s wife,\u2019 and I could see it in his eyes what he was gonna tell me,\u201d she said.<\/p>\n

\"MembersMembers of the NYPD and the family of Officer Jonathan Diller are pictured during the dignified transfer of his body at Jamaica Hospital in Queens on Monday, March 25, 2024. NYPD Officer Jonathan Diller was fatally shot while conducting a vehicle stop on Mott Ave. in Far Rockaway. (Photo by Kyle Mazza \/ SOPA Images \/ Sipa USA via AP Images)<\/p>\n

\u201cDid he die?\u201d she asked him. \u201cIs he dead?\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cAnd he said to me, \u2018Yes he\u2019s dead. I\u2019m sorry.’\u201d<\/p>\n

And seven minutes later, the most powerful testimony in the murder trial of accused cop killer Guy Rivera, 35, was over.<\/p>\n

\u201cShe showed unbelievable strength and courage from that day and every day after that, including today, getting up on that stand,\u201d said Police Benevolent Association President Patrick Hendry. \u201cIn an instant, her life was turned upside down. She lost her husband. Ryan, lost his father. She had to pick up the pieces.\u201d<\/p>\n

Rivera, who had more than 20 prior arrests before the shooting, faces life in prison for the single-gunshot death of Dillard, 31, who had only been on the force for three years.<\/p>\n

\"GuyGuy Rivera, charged in the fatal shooting of NYPD Officer Jonathan Diller, listens to opening statements as his trial begins at Queens Criminal Court on Tuesday, March 10, 2026. (Dave Sanders\/Pool\/The New York Times)<\/p>\n

On March 25, 2024, while patrolling a street in Far Rockaway, Diller and his partner, Sgt. Sasha Rosen, crossed paths with a man in a hoodie with an L-shaped object tucked in his pocket, authorities said.<\/p>\n

They followed him to a car, and asked him several times to roll down his window, cops said. When the door finally opened, Rivera, seated on the passenger side, slowly removed his seatbelt before quickly reaching for his gun and shooting Diller, prosecutors said. The bullet lodged in his hip, below his bullet-proof vest, striking an artery and causing massive internal bleeding.<\/p>\n

Diller died a short time later at Jamaica Hospital.<\/p>\n

Another officer returned fire, hitting Rivera twice.<\/p>\n

Cops said Rivera\u2019s gun jammed after he fired a single, fatal shot, and Rosen escaped unharmed.<\/p>\n

Lindy Jones, who was in the driver\u2019s seat of the car that was stopped, has been charged with gun possession<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Slain NYPD Officer Jonathan Diller\u2019s wife told jurors on Thursday that their last conversation was about making up…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":161941,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[37],"tags":[262,263,266,85,267,9,24,264,12,63,261,122,124,123,265],"class_list":["post-161940","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-queens","tag-city","tag-county","tag-crime-and-public-safety","tag-latest-headlines","tag-local-news","tag-new-york","tag-new-york-city","tag-new-york-county","tag-news","tag-nyc","tag-nyc-crime","tag-queens","tag-queens-headlines","tag-queens-news","tag-sub-county-region"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/161940","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=161940"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/161940\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/161941"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=161940"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=161940"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=161940"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}