A family’s six-year bid to fire ‘killer cop’ fails with Commissioner Tisch’s final decision

Sign up for our FREE acclaimed newsletters!

The news mainstream media just doesn’t cover. Racial justice journalism since 1909.

Sign up

In late 2019, billionaire heiress Jessica Tisch left the NYPD. She would accept an offer to head up the de Blasio administration’s Department of Information Technology and Telecommunications where she would oversee the city’s IT infrastructure. A rising star in city government, Tisch previously led efforts to modernize the NYPD with her tech-forward approach.

Meanwhile, the family of Allan Feliz mourned. The Washington Heights man could not wait to take his son trick-or-treating for the first time just a few weeks earlier. He planned on dressing the newborn as Tigger from the world of Winnie-the-Pooh. A tiny striped costume came through the mail and fit perfectly.

However, halfway to Halloween in October, Feliz encountered Sgt. Jonathan Rivera during a Bronx traffic stop. It ended with the officer fatally shooting him. He was 31 years old.

Nearly six years later, Tisch found herself back in the NYPD, making the ultimate decision not to fire Rivera for killing Feliz. On August 15, the now-police commissioner released a memo confirming she would not find the officer guilty of first-degree assault and second-degree menacing, which would have led to termination.

For more than half a decade, Allan Feliz’s family sought to remove Rivera from the NYPD. His younger brother Samy joined the Justice Committee, a membership organization formed by two former members of the Young Lords, a 1960s activist group advocating for families killed by police violence. He remained a common sight outside of One Police Plaza, leading rallies for Allan.

Early on, the Office of the New York State Attorney General (OAG) declined to criminally prosecute Rivera after a yearlong investigation. “Although the OAG finds no criminal culpability in this tragic matter, we do have serious concerns about the NYPD’s handling of the incident,” wrote AG Letitia James. Then, the NYPD Force Investigation Division (FID), which looks into use of force, conducted a two-year probe on the incident.

Rivera maintained he feared for his and his partner’s life during the encounter, saying he believed Feliz was attempting to drive off and would immediately endanger their lives. The stop stemmed from an alleged seatbelt violation (although Feliz was shown strapped in, based on body-worn camera footage) but escalated after open warrants for low-level offenses like spitting and littering showed up after running the driver’s license he provided and led to a pat-down request turned physical struggle behind the wheel.

While the OAG declined to press charges, the findings allege Rivera “brandished his firearm and threatened to shoot Mr. Feliz before deadly force was justified” when the officers attempted to remove him from the Volkswagen. But the question remains: Was deadly force justified at all?

The previous FID investigation delayed the Civilian Complaint Review Board (CCRB) — the city’s independent NYPD oversight agency — from legally pursuing many disciplinary actions due to an 18-month statute of limitations, which even Tisch called “wrong.” A seven-and-a-half-month extension due to the COVID-19 pandemic, allowing such charges to expire on December 2, 2021. The FID handed its file over to the CCRB on December 8, 2021.

In May 2023, the police watchdog ultimately substantiated misconduct charges against Rivera but would not seek discipline against his partners. If found guilty of the top charge, he would be fired based on the department handbook.

The NYPD, however, attempted to take the prosecution out of the CCRB’s hands and handle the proceedings internally. Then-police commissioner Edward Caban famously buried disciplinary cases using an inconspicuous authority known as retention, according to ProPublica.

Thirty-nine elected officials penned a September 2023 letter to Mayor Eric Adams and Caban, demanding the CCRB move forward with prosecuting Rivera. Signees included Public Advocate Jumaane Williams, City Council Speaker Adrienne Adams, and a relatively unknown Queens Assemblymember at the time named Zohran Mamdani.

“Lt. Rivera has an extensive history of abusing his authority as a police officer and committing misconduct and has already cost the City $195,000 in civil suit settlements in cases separate from Mr. Feliz’s, yet his annual salary has increased by approximately $60k since 2019,” they wrote in 2023. “In the interest of public safety and police accountability, Lt. Rivera must answer to CCRB’s substantiated charges without any delay or interference.”

Last November, Rivera — now an NYPD lieutenant — finally faced a disciplinary trial for his CCRB charges over Feliz’s death. A few days after the proceedings started, Jessica Tisch returned to the NYPD, this time as commissioner.

Commissioner Tisch defies NYPD ruling by not firing officer who killed Allan Feliz

Commissioner Tisch declines to fire NYPD officer who killed Allan Feliz, despite internal ruling and family pleas for justice.

by Tandy Lau July 10, 2025

A nearly unprecedented ruling

Caban resigned in September 2024 after feds seized his phone in a corruption probe. Weeks later, the FBI searched his interim replacement Thomas Donlon’s house over a non-NYPD matter. Tisch’s following appointment signaled a departure from controversy.

While the Rivera disciplinary case played out and the NYPD dealt with a revolving door of commissioners, Tisch was busy building a name for herself. In 2022, she moved over to head the Department of Sanitation and helped architect containerization efforts to get trash off New York City streets and into sealed bins.

She cleaned house almost immediately as NYPD commissioner and notably pushed out Jeffrey Maddrey, a prominent police chief who weathered significant disciplinary efforts from Caban’s predecessor, Keechant Sewell. Tisch also began tracking proper street stop compliance among the rank-and-file and promised to hold commanding officers responsible for their precincts’ performance.

This past February, NYPD Deputy Commissioner of Trials Rosemarie Maldonado, who ostensibly serves as the administrative judge for the department’s internal disciplinary trials, ruled Rivera guilty of first-degree assault. During the proceedings, she seemed unmoved by his claims of a life-or-death response. The offense, like most serious felonies committed behind a badge, is punished by termination under the department’s disciplinary guidelines.

The decision seemed monumental. Just one other officer was ruled guilty for a fireable offense stemming from a CCRB prosecution: Daniel Pantaleo, for the killing of Eric Garner. After such a ruling, the police commissioner makes the final call; 17 days after Maldonado found Pantaleo guilty, then-NYPD commissioner James O’Neill agreed to his termination.

But Tisch did not reach such a rapid decision. Throughout winter and spring, the family of Allan Feliz did not hear back about whether Rivera would lose his job. On Mother’s Day, Feliz’s mom Mery Verdeja and long-time partner Julie Aquino penned a letter to Tisch urging her to confirm the firing. Several other mothers of police killing victims signed the letter, including Kadiatou Diallo, whose son Amadou was killed by NYPD plainclothes officers in 1999.

On Father’s Day, Feliz’s stepdaughter Kilsi sent a similar letter to Tisch. “To me, he is my dad in every way that matters,” she wrote. “I was only 15 when Allan was killed. I will never forget the moment I found out. I experienced panic attacks then, and I still do now. I remember the heartbreak and horror I felt the first time I saw the video of what the NYPD did to Allan. It made me physically sick. I had sleepless nights, constant anxiety, and a deep sadness that still lives in me.”

Tisch overturns the decision

As New Yorkers eagerly awaited for the impending long Independence Day weekend last month, Tisch made her preliminary decision to find Rivera not guilty on the afternoon of July 3. The family of Allan Feliz was not informed until a CCRB contact told them the news.

Police unions, including the one representing Rivera, lauded the move. “Today’s decision by PC Tisch to clear Lt. Jon Rivera sends a clear and decisive message to members of the NYPD,” tweeted the NYPD Lieutenants Benevolent Association on X. “Our Commissioner will back officers acting in good faith. We commend her for doing what she believes is right, no matter the political risks.”

“This is an important decision that recognizes the difficult decision, split-decision choice that NYPD members must make in life-or-death situations,” added NYC Police Benevolent Association president Patrick Hendry, who represents most NYPD officers.

Meanwhile, Public Advocate Williams lambasted Tisch’s rationalization. Much of Tisch’s memo pointed to the Attorney General’s report years ago. However, the standard is much higher in criminal cases than for internal disciplinary proceedings. “You should have been looking at the standard of the administrative judges who said that the actions of this officer at minimum means he should be fired,” said Williams during a July rally.

Despite efforts from advocates, electeds, and the CCRB to change her mind, Tisch finalized her verdict on Aug. 15. Lt. Rivera will keep his job, for now (he faces another substantiated misconduct allegation).

“We knew it was an uphill battle, something that would be tough — to ask the police commissioner to change their decision, but it was something that was still possible, since the final decision had not been made,” said Samy Feliz by phone. “But now, this final decision being exactly the same just continues to show us the sham of the process that we had to go through with the disciplinary trial.”

Despite his disappointment, he remains keen on continuing his Justice Committee advocacy. “It’s not going to stir us away from the fight,” he said. “It’s going to bring us all closer together, and we’re going to continue to fight, and I will still stand with families that are beginning this process or [are] far in-between this process.”