The children of Allan Feliz and Delrawn Small, two men killed by NYPD officers, spent Father’s Day calling on the city to remove the cops involved in their deaths. Organizers originally planned a demonstration outside City Hall for June 22, but cancelled due to stormy weather forecasts. Still, they directed their pleas to Mayor Zohran Mamdani and NYPD Commissioner Jessica Tisch through statements.
Small was killed in front of his 4-month-son Zaiden on July 4, 2016. Wayne Isaacs, the off-duty officer who fatally shot him, remains with the department after previously facing murder charges from a State Attorney General’s Office prosecution.
“I never got to know my dad — I had to learn about him through stories, photos, videos, and memories my family shared,” said Zaiden Small, now 10. “I never had a Father’s Day with him that I can remember. I miss my dad all the time. It is hard not to have him here – at school events, football games, birthdays, graduations — especially when I see my classmates’ dads coming around.
“It makes me wish my dad could do the same. My dad should be alive. No kids should have to learn to live without their dad.”
Isaacs continues to avoid an NYPD misconduct trial, most recently by arguing that he acted as a private citizen even after the city paid out his settlement with taxpayer money. Earlier this year, Public Advocate Jumaane Williams and State Senator Julia Salazar penned an opinion piece for City & State New York calling Isaacs’s defense “a new low for the NYPD.” Salazar followed the initial trial closely as an activist at the time and witnessed Zaiden and his cousin “grow up in the shadow of rallies, hearings, and endless courtrooms.”
Police killed Feliz in 2019 just months after his son Eli’s birth. Last year, an NYPD misconduct trial concluded that Lt. Jonathan Rivera violated department guidelines when he fatally shot the Washington Heights man during a Bronx traffic stop and faced termination — but Tisch, who has final say about discipline, opted to retain the officer in an unprecedented move. Feliz’s family is now suing to overturn the decision.
“I miss my dad,” said Eli Feliz. “Whenever I look at the moon and see the stars, I know my dad is looking down at me. I tell him, ‘I love you, Dad!’”
Feliz also raised his partner’s daughter Kilsi Polanco, who considers him her father. Last year, she wrote a letter to Tisch calling for Rivera’s firing. Recently, Rivera pleaded guilty after another NYPD misconduct trial but kept his job. Mamdani previously called for his firing while serving in the Assembly. Polanco pointed to his past standing with the family and called for him to step in.
“I was only 15 when Allan Feliz, my stepfather, was killed,” said Polanco. “I remember the panic attacks, heartbreak, and horror I felt when I first saw the video of what the NYPD did to him and a deep sadness still lives in me. What hurts the most is knowing I will never get to go out to eat with him, give him a gift for Father’s Day, hug him, or see his smile again.”
