NEW YORK (AP) \u2014 Prosecutors and defense attorneys gave their closing arguments Tuesday in the trial of a man charged in the 2024 shooting death of New York City police officer.<\/p>\n
Video evidence and testimony from officers showed that defendant Guy Rivera pulled out a concealed handgun and intentionally shot Officer Jonathan Diller during a March 25, 2024, traffic stop, prosecutor John Kosinski said.<\/p>\n
Instead of taking retribution, the wounded Diller holstered his own firearm and assisted others in disarming Rivera to make sure no one else got hurt, he said.<\/p>\n
\u201cDiller chose life. The defendant chose differently,\u201d Kosinski said as he held up the bullet taken from the body of Diller, who was promoted to detective posthumously.<\/p>\n
Rivera\u2019s lawyer, Jamal Johnson, argued that prosecutors failed to prove that the shooting was intentional, which is a key requirement to secure a first-degree murder conviction. Instead, he argued that the gun accidentally discharged as another officer struggled with Rivera.<\/p>\n
\u201cThis is not intentional. This is not targeted,\u201d Johnson said.<\/p>\n
Trial testimony from officers on the scene that day also contradicted their own body camera footage, he argued.<\/p>\n
Speaking before a courtroom packed with uniformed officers and Diller\u2019s family, Johnson urged jurors to \u201cquestion everything\u201d in the police narrative and suggested that the officers who testified had a \u201cmotive to lie.\u201d<\/p>\n
\u201cThey want you to disbelieve what the bodycam shows,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n
Kosinski rejected that notion. He said the evidence showed that Rivera intended to use the gun that day because he loaded the clip, chambered a round and switched off the safety before he stuffed it in his pocket.<\/p>\n
\u201cWe don\u2019t tell a story to fit the facts, the facts tell the story,\u201d Kosinski said. \u201cHe pulled the trigger. It was in his hands. That\u2019s what happened here.\u201d<\/p>\n
The jury is expected to begin deliberating Wednesday in the trial, which has lasted about three weeks.<\/p>\n
Rivera could be sentenced to life in prison without the possibility of parole if convicted of first-degree murder. The 36-year-old also faces other charges, including attempted murder.<\/p>\n
The shooting happened while Diller and other officers were on patrol in the Far Rockaway section of Queens. Authorities say one of the officers spotted a suspicious object bulging from Rivera\u2019s hoodie as he and another man walked to a parked car and got in.<\/p>\n
Police say the officers were questioning the driver when Rivera, who was in the passenger\u2019s seat, suddenly pulled out a gun and shot Diller.<\/p>\n
The bullet struck the officer below his bulletproof vest, mortally wounding him. Another officer then shot and wounded Rivera.<\/p>\n
Memorial services for the 31-year-old in his hometown on Long Island drew thousands of visitors, including Donald Trump as he was campaigning to reclaim the White House.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"NEW YORK (AP) \u2014 Prosecutors and defense attorneys gave their closing arguments Tuesday in the trial of a…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":181377,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[36],"tags":[98,100,99,153,65563,73159,9390,9,24,63,73158,833,834,11506,3065,2336,829,831],"class_list":["post-181407","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-brooklyn","tag-brooklyn","tag-brooklyn-headlines","tag-brooklyn-news","tag-donald-trump","tag-guy-rivera","tag-john-kosinski","tag-jonathan-diller","tag-new-york","tag-new-york-city","tag-nyc","tag-nypd-officer-killed-trial-jonathan-diller","tag-package-100024-ap-online","tag-package-100373-mc-complete-state-national","tag-philip-marcelo","tag-product-30083-ap-new-york-city-news-no-weather","tag-product-30085-ap-new-york-state-news-no-weather","tag-product-30598-ap-national-news-report-a-wire","tag-product-31998-ap-online-national-news"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/181407","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=181407"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/181407\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/181377"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=181407"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=181407"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=181407"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}