A New York City police lieutenant who shot and killed a man after pulling him over for not wearing a seatbelt should be fired, a police administrative judge recommended in a rare ruling that will ultimately go to Commissioner Jessica S. Tisch for a final decision.
The officer, Lt. Jonathan Rivera, was a sergeant on Oct. 17, 2019, when he and two other officers were patrolling near Woodlawn Cemetery in the Bronx. One of the officers, Lieutenant Rivera’s partner at the time, saw that the driver of a passing Volkswagen Atlas, Allan Feliz, did not appear to have his seatbelt on.
When they pulled him over and ran his driver’s license, they found several open warrants for failing to pay fines for spitting and littering, and they moved to pat him down. That is when Mr. Feliz, 31, tried to drive away. As Lieutenant Rivera’s partner struggled to pull Mr. Feliz out of the car, Lieutenant Rivera shot him with a Taser, then lunged into the Volkswagen and threatened to shoot him. When the car lurched forward, Lieutenant Rivera shot Mr. Feliz once in the chest with his firearm, killing him.
Lieutenant Rivera argued that he believed Mr. Feliz was about to run over one of his fellow officers, but Rosemarie Maldonado, deputy police commissioner of trials who oversees disciplinary hearings, said she did not believe him when he testified during an internal trial last November.
She concluded that he had tailored his comments on the stand to play down his culpability, which undermined his credibility, according to a draft of the report, which was handed down last Friday and obtained by The New York Times.
Ms. Maldonado said the killing was not justified because Lieutenant Rivera, who had been working at the department since 2010, did not have any sound reason to believe the lives of his fellow officers were at risk, she said.
She found him guilty of first-degree assault and violating department guidelines on the use of force.
The case was brought by prosecutors for the Civilian Complaint Review Board, New York City’s independent police oversight agency, who accused Lieutenant Rivera of first-degree assault and second-degree menacing. Ms. Maldonado dismissed the menacing charge.
Lawyers for the board and for Lieutenant Rivera will have an opportunity to respond to Ms. Maldonado’s recommendation.
The ultimate decision on the lieutenant’s firing will be made by Commissioner Tisch. Samy Feliz, the brother of Allan Feliz, said she should fire Lieutenant Rivera “immediately.”
“Our family has been devastated and forced to fight to get this dangerous cop out of the N.Y.P.D. for over five years,” he said in a statement. “We’ve had enough with the delays.”
James Moschella, a lawyer for Lieutenant Rivera, said Ms. Maldonado “completely got it wrong.”
“The court’s decision is completely unsupported by the indisputable evidence in this matter,” he said.
Mr. Moschella said footage from the officers’ body cameras, video provided by eyewitnesses and the testimony of the other officers at the scene supported Lieutenant Rivera’s version of events.
“If he didn’t believe that firing his weapon was necessary to protect these officers’ lives, why would he do it?” Mr. Moschella said. “We will ask the police commissioner to reject this plainly erroneous decision.”
Louis Turco, president of the lieutenants union, said that the department’s Force Investigations Division found that Lieutenant Rivera had not violated department guidelines. The state attorney general’s office also examined the case and concluded that it could not prove that the use of force was unjustified.
One judge “saw it differently,” Lieutenant Turco said. “It’s extremely disappointing.”
Letitia James, the state attorney general, found in September 2020 that while the officers with Lieutenant Rivera were not in danger, he had “a reasonable perception — or at least not an obviously unreasonable one” that he had to shoot.
But she said she had “several serious concerns” over how the confrontation unfolded. For example, an officer should not threaten deadly force before it is justified.
“During a car stop, an officer should not enter a vehicle over which the motorist has dominion and control,” according to a final report Ms. James’ office issued on the shooting.
The last time a Police Department officer was recommended for termination was in the case of Daniel Pantaleo, whose chokehold led to Eric Garner’s death in 2014.
That recommendation was also handed down by Ms. Maldonado.
The police commissioner at the time, James P. O’Neill, dismissed Mr. Pantaleo in August 2019, five years after Mr. Garner’s dying words — “I can’t breathe” — helped to galvanize the Black Lives Matter protests that led to changes in policing practices in New York and around the country.