{"id":182916,"date":"2026-04-02T00:16:30","date_gmt":"2026-04-02T00:16:30","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/182916\/"},"modified":"2026-04-02T00:16:30","modified_gmt":"2026-04-02T00:16:30","slug":"shocking-verdict-reached-in-shooting-death-of-nypd-hero-cop-jonathan-diller","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/182916\/","title":{"rendered":"Shocking verdict reached in shooting death of NYPD hero cop Jonathan Diller"},"content":{"rendered":"

An explosive verdict was reached<\/a> Wednesday night in the slaying of hero NYPD cop Jonathan Diller \u2014 with the jury acquitting the shooter of the top charge of first-degree murder and settling on manslaughter.<\/p>\n

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\u2019s partner and weapons raps.<\/p>\n

Rivera killed Diller<\/a> in Far Rockaway on March 25, 2024, in a caught-on-video scuffle with New York\u2019s Finest.<\/p>\n

Stephanie Diller reacting to her husband\u2019s killer Guy Rivera being acquitted of first-degree murder. Gregory P. Mango \/ pool<\/p>\n

Rivera reacting to the verdict at his murder trial. Gregory P. Mango \/ pool<\/p>\n

Cops were investigating a suspicious vehicle when Rivera shot Diller and had a gun pointed at a police sergeant\u2019s chest when another officer at the scene shot and wounded the goon, authorities said \u2014 with the drama captured on heart-stopping bodycam footage.<\/p>\n

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.<\/p>\n

Jones is awaiting trial on felony gun possession charges.<\/p>\n

As the deliberations began Wednesday, Rivera\u2019s mother sat in the front row of the courtroom just 6 feet from her son \u2014 and sobbed when bodycam footage of the fatal shooting was played<\/a> after the jury requested a second look.<\/p>\n

Queens District Attorney Melinda Katz watching on as the verdict was announced. Gregory P. Mango \/ pool<\/p>\n

A crowd of police officers outside Queens criminal court on Wednesday. Gregory P. Mango for NY Post<\/p>\n

NYPD officers lined up inside the courthouse to support the Diller family. Gregory P. Mango for NY Post<\/p>\n

Rivera\u2019s mother Keisha Rivera seen in the courthouse during jury deliberations. Gregory P. Mango for NY Post<\/p>\n

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.<\/p>\n

During his closing arguments, defense attorney Jamal Johnson tried to turn the tables by blaming the other cops at the scene for Diller\u2019s shooting death.<\/p>\n

\u201cAll of the [Command Response Team] officers in this case, they are invested,\u201d Johnson told the jury. \u201cThey have a motive to lie.<\/p>\n

\u201cYou see, this is what happens when you\u2019re stopping people and you\u2019re doing it in a dishonest way and we\u2019re going to speak the truth here today,\u201d he added. \u201cThis is how detailed we have to be in our fight for justice.\u201d<\/p>\n

Stephanie Diller, the widow of slain NYPD cop Jonathan Diller, covers her ears as bodycam footage is played on March 31, 2026. Jeff Bachner\/Pool<\/p>\n

Kosinski ripped the defense claim that Rivera, a career criminal with 21 prior busts<\/a>, was the victim of a police cover-up.<\/p>\n

\u201cAlmost a month, almost 30 witnesses,\u201d the prosecutors told jurors. \u201cStipulations, videos, forensics: You\u2019ve heard it all. What did we hear for two hours this morning? Police liars. Government misleading.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe didn\u2019t hear about one thing: This man\u2019s actions on that day,\u201d Kosinski said. \u201cThat\u2019s why we\u2019re here.\u00a0This isn\u2019t about the New York City Police Department. It\u2019s about this defendant\u2019s actions on that day.\u201d<\/p>\n

Stephanie holds her 1-year-old son, Ryan, at her NYPD husband\u2019s funeral in 2024. James Keivom for NY Post<\/p>\n

How The Post covered the tragic 2024 shooting death of Diller. New York Post<\/p>\n

The slain officer\u2019s widow, Stephanie Diller, has been in the Queens courtroom for the accused cop killer\u2019s trial with dozens of police officers surrounding her \u2013 but she has left the room each time photos of videos of her husband\u2019s death have been played for the jury.<\/p>\n

On Tuesday, she covered her ears repeatedly to block out the sound of the gunshot that killed her husband from police bodycam videos that captured the slaying.<\/p>\n

Several cops, including NYPD officer Veckash Khedna, who shot and wounded Rivera, provided tearful testimony detailing Diller\u2019s last moments of life.<\/p>\n

Rivera opted not to testify in his own defense.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"An explosive verdict was reached Wednesday night in the slaying of hero NYPD cop Jonathan Diller \u2014 with…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":182917,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[37],"tags":[9390,57,238,9,24,63,9391,122,124,123,58,23575],"class_list":{"0":"post-182916","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-queens","8":"tag-jonathan-diller","9":"tag-metro","10":"tag-murders","11":"tag-new-york","12":"tag-new-york-city","13":"tag-nyc","14":"tag-police-heroes","15":"tag-queens","16":"tag-queens-headlines","17":"tag-queens-news","18":"tag-us-news","19":"tag-verdicts"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/182916","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=182916"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/182916\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/182917"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=182916"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=182916"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=182916"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}