More than 200 of New York’s Finest packed a Queens courtroom Monday as two career criminals were charged with killing heroic police officer Jonathan Diller during a traffic stop. Prosecutors said the driver admitted to “shooting someone.”
Lindy Jones, who was behind the wheel of a Kia Soul that was stopped by police last week after passenger Guy Rivera allegedly fired shots at the dealer, was charged with four counts of being a felon in possession of a firearm, prosecutors said. announced that he was being questioned, but showed no emotion.
Assistant District Attorney Gabriel Reale said the indictment “relates to a .9mm handgun that was recovered from the glove compartment of a Kia Soul.”
“The Kia Soul was attacked by the defendant’s passenger, now co-defendant Guy Rivera, who pulled out a second .380 caliber gun and opened fire, killing the police officer and, posthumously, Jonathan, now a detective. This was the car the defendant was driving when he killed Diller.”
Rivera, who did not appear in court because he was hospitalized with gunshot wounds, was charged with first- and second-degree murder, attempted murder, and felon in possession of a firearm.
“We live in a society where people are held accountable for the shooting of police officers,” Queens District Attorney Melinda Katz said outside the courthouse. “This is a man who died just doing his job. He was a father, a son, a brother. One day he went out to work and never came home.”
Prosecutors said a 9mm handgun was found in the glove compartment of Jones’ car after the shooting, and that Jones told police, “My name is Lindy Jones Jr. and I shoot people.”
Jones, 41, known by her street nickname “Kira,” has at least 14 arrests, including robbery, assault and attempted murder for allegedly shooting a man three times in a 2001 incident.
He could face up to 30 years in state prison for his role in Diller’s senseless death.
“My office has reported that he said, ‘I shoot people,’ which is one of the reasons we believe he is an alarming flight risk,” Katz said. Told. “He made it very clear that this is what he was doing, shooting people.”
Rivera, 34, is also a seasoned criminal with 21 arrests and served five years in state prison for a drug conviction before being released in 2021 and completing parole in 2022.
Police said Diller, a married father of a 1-year-old boy, was shot under his bulletproof vest as he spotted Jones and Rivera’s car parked at a bus stop in Far Rockaway and was questioning them. That’s what it means.
Officials said the fatally wounded young officer grabbed Rivera’s gun during a life-or-death struggle between the murder suspect and Diller’s partner, an NYPD sergeant, over the weapon.
Rivera was wounded in the battle.
After Jones was taken into custody, he was charged with weapons possession.
At the time, he was being held on $75,000 bond for a previous gun possession charge, but Reale said the two cases would be combined.
Patrick Hendry, president of the NYPD Police Benevolent Association, said Jones was a “career criminal with multiple arrests, and less than a year ago, he was arrested for an illegal firearm.”
“Why was he back on the streets again? He should have been remanded,” he said. “And last Monday, he had another illegal firearm in his car. He is as much responsible for the death of our hero brother as the triggerman.
“Our criminal justice system is broken. We’ve said it many times,” Hendry added. “In this case, we need to start changing now. We need to start now.”
Police officials said Rivera and Jones, who appeared to be planning a robbery, parked in front of the cell phone store for at least 10 minutes, arousing Diller’s suspicions.
Jones tried to save the day by claiming that Rivera was a hitchhiker he had just picked up.
According to prosecutors, the man allegedly told officers at the 101st Precinct that he had another gun in his car. “I think they found it. That’s why I’m here.”
Jones, who was wearing an orange prison jumpsuit, was taken into custody Monday at Rikers Island by Judge Gia Morris and is scheduled to be arraigned on April 16.
His lawyer, Murray Singer, had no comment.
Rivera is scheduled to appear in court on May 7th.
Diller, 31, a three-year veteran of New York’s Finest, was arrested last weekend in Massapequa after a two-day vigil that drew hundreds of uniformed officers from across the country and included a visit from the former president. He was buried after the funeral. Donald Trump.
In a moving memorial, the slain police officer’s wife accused city and state police of failing to keep violent criminals like River and Long off the streets and protect officers.
“It’s been two years and two months since Detectives Rivera and Mora made the ultimate sacrifice, just like my husband Jonathan Diller,” Stephanie Diller told mourners. “Dominque Rivera stood before every elected official present today and called for change.
“That change never came,” she said. “And now my son grows up without a father, and I grow old without a husband. And his parents have to say goodbye to the child.
Mr. Diller is also survived by the couple’s son, Ryan.
