An officer involved in the fatal shooting of an unarmed ex-con during a 2019 traffic stop was cleared of wrongdoing by NYPD leadership on Thursday after an internal investigation into the incident.
NYPD Commissioner Jessica Tish assessed that Lt. Col. Jonathan Rivera acted within his rights to fatally shoot Alan Ferris, citing protection of his fellow officer, according to law enforcement sources.
This decision came after Tish evaluated reports from the state attorney general’s office analyzing body camera footage from that day in October 2019.
“The commissioner closely examined the situation,” a source mentioned. “She relied significantly on the attorney general’s findings.”
The attorney general’s report indicated that the shooting was justified as Rivera and Officer Edward Barrett believed they were facing serious danger.
“The AG stated that [Rivera’s] belief was reasonable. Another officer was in a precarious situation,” the source added.
Ferris, 31, was initially stopped because officers suspected he wasn’t wearing his seatbelt. Rivera, Barrett, and Officer Michel Almanzar were present during the stop on Bainbridge Avenue in 2018.
The encounter escalated when Barrett recognized Ferris had an outstanding warrant and asked him to exit the vehicle, which led to a violent struggle.
The tension mounted as Ferris reached back into the car, prompting Rivera to warn, “Yo, I’m going to shoot you,” while Barrett urged Ferris to cooperate.
Ultimately, Rivera fired a shot, resulting in Ferris’s death; he was a father to a six-month-old child.
Following Ferris’s death, his family filed a potential $350 million class action lawsuit against the city and the NYPD, claiming systemic racial profiling and the excessive use of force.
The lawsuit argued that Ferris wasn’t attempting to drive off, but rather that he was simply moving back into the vehicle.
Ashley Verdeja, Ferris’s sister, expressed the emotional toll of revisiting the incident in a statement. “It’s incredibly painful to see those images and descriptions again. It’s a trauma we constantly endure,” she noted.
She added, “For my family, seeing Rivera still on the streets, armed, following what he did to my brother feels like an affront.”
