NYPD cop who shot unarmed ex-con Allan Feliz will keep job: commissioner
The top cop made the 'unprecedented' decision on the October 2019 ordeal – captured on heart-pounding body-worn camera footage – after reviewing the exhaustive analysis of the case conducted by the State Attorney General's office, as required by state law.
'The commissioner looked at this case very closely,' a law enforcement source said. 'She leaned heavily on the AG's report.
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'In the AG's report, the AG said the shooting was justified because [Rivera] had a reasonable belief that another police officer was in grave danger and his life was at risk,' she added, referring to Rivera's colleague, Officer Edward Barrett.
3 Allan Feliz, 31, a father to a 6-month-old son, was shot and killed by then-Sergeant Jonathan Rivera during a 2019 car stop.
Brigitte Stelzer/copyphoto
'The PC agreed with the AG's analysis and found that Rivera is not guilty. The decision is unprecedented. A police commissioner has never written a long decision like this.'
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'She went through this very closely and it shows how much thought and time she put into it.'
Feliz, 31, was pulled over by then-Sgt. Rivera, Officer Barrett and Officer Michelle Almanzar in his 2018 Volkswagen Atlas on Bainbridge Avenue near East 211th Street around 3 p.m. because they believed the men inside weren't wearing seatbelts – though they were.
3 In an 'unprecedented decision,' Commissioner Jessica Tisch determined that Rivera's shooting of Feliz was justified.
Robert Miller
What began as a routine traffic stop turned violent when Barrett realized Feliz — who once served five years on a burglary conviction — had an open warrant and asked him to step out of the vehicle.
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The struggle began when Feliz got back into the car and it moved, prompting the cops — who believed he was trying to drive away — to taser him and try to pull him out of the car.
'Yo bro I'm going to fucking shoot you,' Rivera could be heard saying in the video, while Barrett yelled for Feliz to 'put it in park, put it in park.'
Rivera eventually fired a single shot killing Feliz — the father of a then-6-month-old whom he had with Aquino.
3 Feliz's death sparked his family file a $350 million potential class action lawsuit against the city and the NYPD.
Brigitte Stelzer/copyphoto
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The Attorney General's report concluded that 'there is no obvious reason to doubt' that Rivera opened fire because he believed the act would save his fellow officer's life and that 'the totality of the circumstances strongly suggest that [his] belief was reasonable.'
Lou Turco, the president of the Lieutenant's Benevolent Association, commended Tisch's decision.
'Today's decision by Commissioner Tisch sends a clear and decisive message to the members of the NYPD who risk their lives every day that our Commissioner will back officers acting in good faith performance of their duties, no matter the political risks,' the union head said.
'I commend her for standing her ground for what she believes is right when it comes to our officer's.'
Before the car stop turned deadly, Allan had handed police the Ohio ID of his 29-year-old brother, Samy Feliz, police sources said at the time.
But Allan had used Samy's name before, the sources said. As a result, Allan's open warrants for disorderly conduct, littering and unlicensed driving still came up when Samy's ID was run, sources said.
Feliz additionally had four felonies on his record, for burglary, robbery and marijuana possession.
Feliz's death at the hands of police sparked his family to file a $350 million potential class action lawsuit against the city and the NYPD for an alleged pattern of racial profiling and excessive use of force.
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The lawsuit also claims that Feliz wasn't trying to drive away but rather when he got back in the car it 'was caused to shift forward.'
'It's just constant abuse after the other, one after the other he just gets punched, brutalized,' Ashley Verdeja, Allan's sister, said back in November following one of Rivera's departmental trail appearances. 'And it's really painful to have to relive those images and those videos once again and once again. It is beyond traumatizing to say the least.'
'But the biggest slap in the face for all of us here, as the family of Allan and mostly for my mother, is having to see Lieutenant Rivera walk in with his gun,' she added. 'You know, it's a slap in the face to have to see him still carrying a weapon after what he did to my brother and what he did to her son.'
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