New York City police officer fatally shot during traffic stop

A New York City police officer was shot and killed during a traffic stop on Monday, the mayor said. It was the first time an NYPD officer had been killed in two years.

“Today we lost a son, and it’s very painful. It’s extremely painful,” Mayor Eric Adams said, speaking to reporters at the hospital where the officer died.

Police said the shooting occurred around 5:50 p.m. in the Far Rockaway area of ​​Queens when Officer Jonathan Diller and his partner encountered an illegally parked car at a bus stop. Vehicles.

Police Chief Edward Caban said as they approached the vehicle, a man inside shot Diller under his bulletproof vest. Diller’s partner returned fire, injuring the suspected shooter, who was taken to an area hospital.

Diller was taken to Jamaica Hospital Medical Center but could not be saved, officials said. Caban said on social media platform X that he had worked for the police department for three years and was married with a young child.

“We struggle to find words to express the tragedy of losing a loved one,” Caban wrote.

Police Detective Inspector Joseph Kenny said Diller and his partner initially tried to order the driver and passenger out of the car while it was parked on a busy but narrow street in a busy business district.

“He was asked to get out of the car,” Kenney said of the man who pulled the gun. “He was given multiple lawful orders to exit the vehicle. He refused. When officers took him out of the vehicle, instead of exiting the vehicle, he shot and killed our officers.”

Kenney said Diller “continued to fight” after being injured and tried to disarm the gunman, whose name police did not immediately release.

“The gun fell to the ground. While the perpetrator was still reaching for it, the officer grabbed it, although he was still shot,” Kenney said.

Witnesses described chaotic scenes.

“It happened so fast,” bystander Melissa Morgan, 39, told the Daily News. “The officer fell to the floor and other officers pulled the two men out of the car. I was running for cover.”

Another witness, Deon Peters, told the New York Post he saw Diller fall to the ground.

“He was moving and he was saying ‘I got hit, I got hit,'” Peters said.

It was the first killing of an NYPD officer since 2022, when two officers, Wilbert Mora, 27, and Jason Rivera, 22, were responding to a call Ambushed at a Harlem apartment building following a domestic disturbance call.

Adams, a former police captain, said he met with Diller’s grieving widow. He called the shooting a “senseless act of violence.”

“Can I be clearer? It’s good guys versus bad guys,” he said. “And these bad guys are violent. They carry guns. And they have complete disregard for our symbol of public safety, the police uniform.”

Kenney said one of the people in the car was arrested on gun charges in April 2023.

Patrick Hundley, president of the New York Police Benevolent Association, expressed outrage over the shooting.

“These attacks on New York City police officers must stop immediately,” he said. “We have a family upstairs that has been devastated. There are police in the hallway and they have lost a brother. This has to end now.”

__

Associated Press writers Michael R. Sisak and Jack Offenharz contributed to this report.