Guy Rivera, 34, is a career criminal and ex-con who shot 31-year-old police officer John Diller after refusing police instructions to get out of a car Monday in Queens, New York City.
That’s according to prosecutors.
Rivera, called “a career criminal” by prosecutors, was a passenger in a Kia Soul parked near a T-Mobile store when Diller and other policemen stopped to query them for allegedly parking in front of a bus stop.
The pair allegedly refused to cooperate with police, and Rivera pulled out a gun, shooting Diller in the stomach underneath his bulletproof vest. Diller died a short time later. He leaves behind a wife and one-year-old boy.
Diller’s partner fired back, injuring Rivera with at least one gunshot to his back.
Police say Rivera has at least 21 prior arrests. Authorities say they found a shiv, a type of handcrafted knife, in his rectum.
Diller’s tragic murder received international news coverage as New York grapples with a violent crime wave and the reality of many repeat offenders who are quickly released to commit more crimes.
Police say Lindy “Killa” Jones, age 41, was in the driver’s side of the Kia Soul.
Both Jones and Rivera are black, while Officer Diller was white, but police have not mentioned possible racial motivations or “hate crime” charges.
After the shooting, Jones was charged with four counts of criminal possession of a weapon. Police reportedly found a 9-millimeter gun with the serial number scratched off, not the murder weapon, in the glove compartment of the car.
Like Rivera, Jones reportedly is a career criminal with at least 14 prior arrests. Jones was said to be due in court Monday, April 1, for charges stemming from an attempted murder in 2001 when he shot a man three times, according to reports.
Jones allegedly told officials that he didn’t previously know Rivera, and picked him up as a hitchhiker.
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