{"id":181702,"date":"2026-04-01T02:54:07","date_gmt":"2026-04-01T02:54:07","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/181702\/"},"modified":"2026-04-01T02:54:07","modified_gmt":"2026-04-01T02:54:07","slug":"closing-arguments-in-trial-of-man-who-allegedly-killed-cop","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/181702\/","title":{"rendered":"Closing arguments in trial of man who allegedly killed cop"},"content":{"rendered":"

Closing arguments began Tuesday in the trial of Guy Rivera, who is accused of fatally shooting 31-year-old NYPD Officer Jonathan Diller<\/a> in Queens.<\/p>\n

It happened during a police encounter in Far Rockaway on March 25, 2024. During closing arguments, the attorney for Rivera<\/a> focused on disproving the testimony of Diller\u2019s then-partner.<\/p>\n

What You Need To Know<\/p>\n

Closing arguments began Tuesday in the trial of Guy Rivera, who is accused of fatally shooting 31-year-old NYPD Officer Jonathan Diller in Queens
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It happened during a police encounter in Far Rockaway on March 25, 2024
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The attorney for Rivera focused on disproving the testimony of Diller\u2019s then-partner
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The prosecution\u2019s summation focused on picking apart Rivera\u2019s defense and showing why they believe he intended to kill Diller<\/p>\n

The prosecution\u2019s summation focused on picking apart Rivera\u2019s defense and showing why they believe he intended to kill Diller. Investigators said Rivera, who was 34 years old at the time, got into a car with another man and \u2014 after officers approached the vehicle \u2014 allegedly ignored their orders to roll down the window, not to reach for anything, and to get out of the vehicle.<\/p>\n

Prosecutors alleged Diller\u2019s partner, Sgt. Sasha Rosen<\/a>, tried to stop Rivera from grabbing his gun; a struggle ensued, and Rivera intentionally aimed the gun underneath Diller\u2019s bulletproof vest and shot him.<\/p>\n

During the prosecution\u2019s closing arguments Tuesday, the court was shown body camera footage of the encounter, including the moment someone could be heard saying, \u201cDon\u2019t put your hand in your pocket\u201d before shots were fired.<\/p>\n

The court also saw Diller\u2019s body camera footage showing when he, despite being mortally wounded, disarmed Rivera \u2014 who had his finger on the trigger.<\/p>\n

The defense also reiterated that Diller\u2019s partner allegedly reached into the vehicle before the gun went off to grab a firearm that Rivera had, and that the ensuing struggle caused the gun to discharge. Rivera\u2019s attorney argued he did not intend to shoot and kill Diller and pointed to surveillance camera footage that allegedly showed the officer was not in his client\u2019s line of sight when he was shot.<\/p>\n

Rivera\u2019s attorney also insisted that the suspect could see the guns of other officers pointed at him and knew that shooting an officer would be a fatal mistake.<\/p>\n

During the trial, the court was shown body camera video showing the struggle in question, and the video was frozen for the court \u2014 showing Diller\u2019s partner grabbing Rivera\u2019s hand with Rivera\u2019s finger on the trigger.<\/p>\n

The defense argued that Rivera made a bad split-second decision during the struggle but did not prove intent.<\/p>\n

The defense rested its case by insisting that the prosecution did not establish beyond a reasonable doubt that Rivera intended to kill Diller, which they would need to do for him to be found guilty of the top charge of first-degree murder.<\/p>\n

The prosecution rested its case by arguing the opposite, saying the evidence pointed to Rivera\u2019s intent the moment he picked up the gun.<\/p>\n

Diller<\/a> was posthumously promoted to detective.<\/p>\n

Rivera, who is now 36 years old, is charged with murder, attempted murder, and five additional weapons charges. He faces up to life in prison without the possibility of parole if convicted.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Closing arguments began Tuesday in the trial of Guy Rivera, who is accused of fatally shooting 31-year-old NYPD…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":159929,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[37],"tags":[10015,387,25,303,9,24,12,26,63,308,122,124,123,27],"class_list":["post-181702","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-queens","tag-app-crime","tag-app-public-safety","tag-app-top-stories","tag-crime","tag-new-york","tag-new-york-city","tag-news","tag-nia-clark","tag-nyc","tag-public-safety","tag-queens","tag-queens-headlines","tag-queens-news","tag-top-stories"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/181702","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=181702"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/181702\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/159929"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=181702"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=181702"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=181702"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}