Trial begins for man accused of shooting police officer in Queens

The trial of Guy Rivera, who is accused of killing NYPD officer Jonathan Diller, began on Tuesday, March 10, 2026.  Pool photo taken by Dave Sanders

By Noah Powelson

The courtroom was packed on Tuesday for the start of the trial of Guy Rivera, who is accused of shooting and killing a police officer in Queens in 2024.

Police officers, members of the district attorney's office and reporters crowded the courtroom as prosecutors and defense attorneys in the case gave their opening statements to the jury who will decide Rivera’s fate.

Rivera, 36, was charged with first- and second-degree murder for allegedly shooting and killing NYPD Officer Jonathan Diller during a traffic stop in Far Rockaway on March 25, 2024.

Attorneys signaled a long contentious trial ahead, filled with videos, testimony from police officers and forensic evidence as both sides tell their own story for why the gun that killed Diller went off that day.

Footage taken from police body-worn cameras and nearby surveillance cameras will be at the crux of both sides’ arguments, and a few key frames of footage will likely be heavily scrutinized.

Prosecutors with the Queens district attorney’s office will seek to prove that when officers pulled over Rivera and his co-defendant, Lindy Jones, because they suspected they had a gun, Rivera resorted to murder in an attempt to evade arrest.

Assistant District Attorney Kenneth Zawistowski said Rivera took “horrific, violent actions,” motivated by a selfish disregard for life.

Zawistowski said Rivera was caught red-handed with an illegal gun in his pocket, and instead of cooperating with officers and risking arrest, he opened fire. Prosecutors were clear – Rivera didn’t just panic and fire the gun by accident, rather, murder was his intention when he pulled the trigger. If he had his way, prosecutors said, Rivera would have also murdered Diller’s partner, but his gun jammed.

“[The defendant] had a choice,” Zawistowski said. “He chose violence.”

Erin Darcy, the Legal Aid Soceity attorney representing Rivera, categorically denied her client had any murderous intent and denied the gun was fired on purpose. Darcy called the district’s attorney’s version of events and characterization of Rivera “completely false.”

“That simply did not happen in this case,” Darcy told the jury in her opening statement. “There were critical facts that were not told to you…Your role as a jury is not to render a verdict based on how something ended, but on the evidence.”

Darcy argued – and claimed the police’s own body camera footage would prove – that Rivera’s gun fired unintentionally and Diller’s death was an accident.

NYPD Officer Jonathan Diller was killed on March 25, 2024, after stopping Guy Rivera in Far Rockaway on suspected weapon possession. Photo via NYPD News

While the actual shooting is heavily contented, many facts of the events leading up to it were undisputed.

The day of the shooting, March 25, 2024, was originally supposed to be Diller’s day off, but he was called in to work at the last minute.

Diller, along with his partner Sergeant Sasha Rosen and three other police officers, were members of the NYPD’s controversial Community Response Team. They were assigned to the 101st Precinct in Far Rockaway for patrol that day.

At the same time, Rivera had met up with a friend, Jones, who is also charged in a separate case on the same matter. The two men reportedly had an uneventful day driving around and shopping.

Then, around 5:43 p.m., Diller and his team were patrolling Mott Avenue when they stopped a man getting off a bus because they believed they saw an object in his coat pocket that could be a weapon. It was a false alarm, and Diller sent the man on his way.

But at that moment his partner, Rosen, saw Rivera and Jones get out of their car and walk into a store together. Rosen, who has over 20 years of service in the NYPD, reported he saw a large L-shaped object protruding in Rivera’s coat pocket.

“Did you see that?” Rosen told Diller and another at the time, believing the object to be a gun.

Rosen and Diller then approached Rivera and Jones as the two men left the store and entered Jones’ car, with Rivera sitting in the passenger seat. Diller walked up to Rivera’s side, repeatedly tapped on the window and ordered him to lower it, but Rivera didn’t respond. On the driver’s side of the car Rosen, talking to Jones, had reached into the open window and unlocked the car doors.

As Diller opened the passenger door, another police officer, Veckash Khedna, unholstered his weapon and told Rivera, “Do not put your hands in your pockets.”

Diller and Rivera engaged in a brief scuffle as the two pushed and pulled against each other. That’s when the gun went off and Diller was shot.

Almost immediately after, Khedna shot Rivera twice in his upper body and arm. Rosen then apprehended the injured Rivera, arresting him and Jones.

The chaotic scene lasted only a few seconds, but attorneys will likely spend hours dissecting every frame of footage available of the moment as the two sides offer contrasting explanations for Rivera’s actions.

Prosecutors are expected to question the officers who responded to the shooting, the medics who brought Diller to the hospital, detectives and other police expert witnesses.

“They will have to relive one of the worst days of their lives – the day a fellow officer and friend died,” Zawistowski said.

Diller’s family was in attendance during the opening statements. Among them was his widow, Stephanie Diller, who periodically wiped tears away listening to prosecutors recount Diller’s death.

With an emotional room filled with people mostly there in solidarity with Diller’s family, Rivera’s attorneys told the jury empathy was only natural, but to keep their decision and reasoning based solely on the evidence of the case.

“Your decision cannot be based on outside opinion, pressure or presence,” Darcy told the jury while looking at the audience of mostly police officers. “Tragic outcomes do not always come from hate or evil. Sometimes it comes from split seconds of fear.”

Along with the murder charges, Rivera faces a litany of illegal weapon possession charges, which his attorneys did not dispute during opening statements.

Rivera faces up to life in prison without the possibility of parole if convicted of the top charges.