Attorneys for an NYPD lieutenant facing possible termination over fatally shooting a motorist during a Bronx car stop five years ago raised the dead man’s criminal past during an internal disciplinary trial Tuesday, sparking anger from departmental critics who are pressing for the officer’s dismissal.
The fatal encounter unfolded on Oct. 17, 2019 when Lt. Jonathan Rivera pulled over Allan Feliz for not wearing a seatbelt. Feliz, 31, gave the officers his brother’s identification before trying to drive off and escape. Rivera then leapt through the passenger side window and tazed, beat and finally shot Feliz in the chest on E. 211th St. and Bainbridge Ave.
As the long-delayed trial got underway, attorneys James Moschella and Philip Karasyk brought up Feliz’s criminal past, saying the man was on methamphetamines, had drugs on his person and was on federal parole for selling drugs. The lawyers said they wanted to help establish the dead man’s “state of mind” when he tried to escape Rivera, who was a sergeant at the time, and Police Officers Edward Barrett and Michelle Almanzar.
The move drew an immediate objection from Civilian Complaint Review Board prosecutor Amanda Rodriguez.
“(Feliz’) state of mind is not relevant here,” Rodriguez told NYPD Deputy Commissioner of Trials Rosemarie Maldonado Tuesday. “It’s also more prejudicial than probative. The actions we are concerned with are those of the lieutenant.”
But Maldonado allowed the info to come in, noting its “limited weight” on the case before them.The three officers had pulled Feliz over believing that he was driving without a seatbelt.
When they finally stopped him, they realized he did have his seatbelt on, but ran the name he gave them, Samy Feliz, through their computer. When cops found several open warrants in Samy Feliz’s name, they tried to take Feliz into custody, sparking the deadly confrontation.
“Yo! If I have to end up f—– shooting you bro!” Lt. Rivera is heard screaming as Feliz wails in pain from repeated tazer shocks. “Yo bro! I’m going to f—– shoot you.”
A minute later, Rivera did so.
Feliz’ stunned passenger is seen screaming “Don’t shoot me!” as Lt. Rivera and Barrett repeatedly strike the driver in the head trying to get him to surrender.
Dr. Marc Edward Brown, a police tactics expert from South Carolina testifying for the CCRB, said Tuesday that Lt. Rivera’s use of deadly force “was not justified.”
Lt. Rivera, he said, put himself in danger by vaulting through the window and getting into a close quarters fight with Feliz.
“I don’t believe deadly force should have been used at that point,” he said. “(Rivera) put himself in jeopardy and you shouldn’t escalate the force over the jeopardy you created.”
Moschella and Karasyk said Rivera shot Feliz because the lieutenant believed Officer Barrett, who was on the other side of the car, had fallen to the ground and was about to be run over by Feliz’s SUV. Rivera has previously been cleared of any wrongdoing by both the NYPD and state Attorney General Letitia James’ office.
At the end of the trial, Maldonado will not be determining if Rivera had followed NYPD patrol guidelines and tactics. Rather, much like in the departmental trial of the cops who fatally shot Kawasaki Trawick in 2019, the CCRB has a higher evidence threshold and must prove Rivera violated state penal law for assault and menacing, officials said.
CCRB was left in this bind because the NYPD took more than two and a half years to provide the police watchdog agency with body worn camera footage and Force Investigation Division findings, forcing the 18 month statute of limitations to run out, said Loyda Colón, the executive director of the Justice Committee, which has been demanding that Mayor Adams and Interim Police Commissioner Thomas Donlon fire Lt. Rivera.
After constantly re-watching footage of Feliz’s death — taking quick breaks so his 5-year-old son Eli could leave the courtroom before the violent videos were shown — the one thing that truly upset the dead man’s family at Tuesday’s departmental trial was what Lt. Rivera wore when he walked into the trial room.
“The biggest slap in the face to the family was having to see Lt. Rivera walking in with his gun,” said Feliz’s sister Ashley Verdeja, during a press conference and demonstration outside the courtoom. “To see him carrying a weapon after what he did to my brother.”
Colón criticized Rovera’s lawyers bringing up Feliz’s criminal past.
“Today in true NYPD fashion in the very first 15 minutes of the discipline proceedings, they immediately began to blame Allan Feliz for his own death,” they said, “This is beyond ridiculous.”
Body camera footage repeatedly shown during the first day of trial shows Lt. Rivera jumping through the passenger side window and laying across the passenger as he tried to subdue Feliz with a tazer in one hand and a gun in the other “like a cowboy,” Colon said.