Bodycam video captured chilling final moments of hero NYPD cop slain at point-blank range: ‘I’m hit’
Bodycam footage caught the chilling final moments of slain NYPD cop Jonathan Diller, including how he was blasted from about 2 feet away and gasped, “I’m hit!’’ before collapsing, a police source said Tuesday.
Diller, a 31-year-old married new dad, had just finished up on another call in the area as part of a three-person NYPD Community Response Team when he spotted a Kia Soul illegally parked at a nearby bus stop in Far Rockaway, Queens, shortly before 6 p.m. Monday, the high-ranking source said.
Diller — dressed in a modified CRT uniform of khaki pants and a blue top — went up to the passenger side of the vehicle, where hardened career criminal Guy Rivera, 34, was sitting, the source said.
The cop’s partner approached the driver’s side, where ex-con Lindy Jones, 41, was behind the wheel, the source said.
Something didn’t sit right with Diller.
“The cop had very good instincts,’’ the source said. “We believe they interrupted something, we just don’t know what. There’s something about the car sitting there that draws this cop to it.
“It’s possible they were casing somebody or something on that commercial strip,’’ the source added, noting the vehicle was parked outside a T-Mobile phone store, where video later showed it had been sitting for about 10 minutes with both men inside.
Diller and his partner, who were with their sergeant, asked the men to roll down their windows.
The pair in the car refused, according to the police video, which was seen by the source and described for reporters.
Diller asked Rivera to take his hands out of his sweatshirt pocket, but the suspect balked, the source said.
Jones finally unlocked the automatic door locks, and Diller grabbed the passenger-side door handle to open the door, but Rivera allegedly wouldn’t let him free it.
Diller repeatedly yanked the handle from the outside as the passenger stubbornly pulled back in a tug of war, the source said.
Diller eventually got the door open and told Rivera again to take his hands out of his sweatshirt pocket, the source said.
That’s when Rivera allegedly fired a single shot at Diller from his seat, hitting the cop in the stomach — below his bulletproof vest.
“I’m shot!’’ Diller can be heard saying on bodycam video, the source said.
The distance between Rivera and Diller was no more than 2 feet, the source said.
Diller’s partner then fired two shots through the driver side window, with the bullets whizzing past Jones and at least one striking Rivera in the back, the source said.
After the shooting, the sergeant and Diller’s partner picked the mortally wounded officer up off the ground as he gushed blood and put him into their unmarked police vehicle and drove him to Jamaica Hospital, the source said.
In their race against time, they got stuck in traffic and were forced to drive the wrong way down some streets — with higher-ups later commending them for not waiting for an ambulance.
“They did the right thing,’’ the high-ranking source said of the officers — who as part of the NYPD’s CRT typically focused on investigating vehicles with illegal license plates and window tints, and other quality-of-life issues.
Rivera remains hospitalized Tuesday, while Jones is being held for questioning at the 101st Precinct in Queens. Neither man has been charged.