Family and friends of Allan Feliz, who was shot and killed during a traffic stop near Woodlawn Cemetery in the Norwood section of The Bronx on Oct. 17, 2019 by a police sergeant, held a rally outside NYPD headquarters in Lower Manhattan on July 8, to urge Police Commissioner Jessica Tisch to change course after she announced on July 3 that she decided not to fire the involved sergeant, now an NYPD lieutenant, Jonathan Rivera. Tisch took the decision not to fire Rivera despite the recommendation of NYPD Deputy Commissioner of Trials Rosemarie Maldonado.

 

As we reported at the time, Feliz was pulled over at Bainbridge Avenue and East 211th Street for allegedly failing to wear a seatbelt. According to the NYPD, unbeknownst at that time to Rivera and his colleague, Officer Edward Barrett, who pulled him over, Feliz had been on federal supervised release and was in possession of cocaine and methamphetamine [but was reportedly unarmed].

 

According to the final report on the fatal shooting by the the Office of the New York Attorney General Letitia James’ special investigations and prosecutions unit (SIPU), released in September 2020, when asked, Feliz gave Rivera and Barrett the driver’s license that belonged to his brother, Sammy Feliz, and when they ran that name through the police system, they discovered that Sammy Feliz had three open warrants for minor offenses, prompting them to arrest his brother, the driver, Allan Feliz.

 

According to video footage of the incident and the same final SIPU report, Allan Feliz resisted arrest, a struggle ensued, and he got back into the car and attempted to escape. During the ongoing struggle, Feliz’s car was reportedly moving forwards and then backwards while Allan Feliz was driving. Rivera reportedly believed at one point that Barrett was under the car, and having first attempted to taser Allan Feliz unsuccessfully, he then fired his gun, killing him.

 

On Sept. 25, 2020, the SIPU released its final report into the fatal shooting and did not find criminal culpability on the part of police involved in the incident. “Based on witness accounts, considerable video evidence, and an exhaustive review of the facts, the use of deadly force could not be proven to be unjustified beyond a reasonable doubt, as the legal standard requires,” an SIPU report extract read.

 

City Council Speaker Adrienne Adams and Deputy Speaker Diana Ayala (C.D. 8) later shared their reaction to Tisch’s decision not to fire Rivera, saying they were deeply disappointed by it given it disregarded the recommendations of the NYPD’s own judge and deputy commissioner. “This egregious decision betrays the public trust and accountability that is necessary to advance public safety,” they wrote. According to the Associated Press, the CCRB (Civilian Complaints Review Board) had until Friday, July 11, to give its recommendation on the matter.

 

“Our hearts are with Allan Feliz’s family during this painful time when the mayor and police commissioner have re-traumatized them with this announcement,” Adams and Ayala added. “We urge Commissioner Tisch to reject the corrupt status quo practices of the past and follow the NYPD judge and CCRB recommendation.”

 

On July 8, Sammy feliz attended the rally alongside his other family members. As reported, he had long campaigned for justice for his late brother and cited police misconduct complaints against Rivera logged on an independent website, https://www.50-a.org/officer/3QNF, as evidence that Allan’s death was not an isolated incident. The website in question cites 39 allegations, 5 substantiated against Rivera, as of 2024. Meanwhile, CCRB complaint records for Rivera show less substantiated allegations. Norwood News attempted to reach Rivera’s attorney for comment but we were unsuccessful.

 

 

Sammy Feliz said in part of Tisch, “She still has until Friday [July 11] to make a final decision on this case and within that understanding, she still has an opportunity to make the right decision, and that is to fire Jonathan Rivera.”

 

He added, “The facts are clear on why this officer [sergeant] should be fired. It’s a pattern of abuse not only to New Yorkers, but what he did with Allan was a complete atrocity. [It] shows no regard for human life, and then he’s continued to act in that way since, and it just shows that he’s not someone who has learned their lesson and feels like that shield is going to continue to protect him from all the wrongdoing that’s happening.”

 

Sammy Feliz said Allan was 31 when he was killed and that and he was father and a welder. He said in February 2025, an NYPD Trial Judge found Rivera guilty of assault. Citing the independent police misconduct website, https://www.50-a.org/officer/3QNF, Sammy Feliz alleged that prior complaints against Rivera included the shooting of a 15-year-old, as well as six active lawsuits in which he was named.

 

CCRB records, meanwhile, show one allegation relating to a gun being fired by Rivera in the context of a complaint and that complaint was from October 2019, when Allan Feliz was killed.

 

Speaking to Norwood News on July 8, Sammy Feliz, who lives in Washington Heights, decried the fact that Rivera was a sergeant at the time of his brother’s death but has since remained employed by the NYPD and has even gone on to become a lieutenant.

 

He also lamented that Tisch’s decision was reported in the press and by the NYPD as a final decision which he said was “completely out of due process, because the correct process is that once the police commissioner figures out what her decision is, the CCRB has five days to respond to that decision.”

 

He added, “That decision is like a preliminary decision until the final decision is made after the CCRB is able to respond to the police commissioner’s preliminary decision so it was very hurtful. But for us, it was just showing us how much of a sham this disciplinary process is for police officers [is], in which they’re not held accountable at any point in time for wrongdoing to members of our community, and even for killing innocent New Yorkers like my brother.”

 

We asked Sammy Feliz if the NYPD trial judge who presided over the case was like a regular judge. “It was Deputy Commissioner of Trials, yeah, Maldonado, that was able to substantiate the viable charges on this officer [sergeant], Jonathan Rivera, and that happened, I would say, at the beginning of this year, or the end of last year, but Police Commissioner Tisch has been holding onto this decision for over 6 months now,” he said.

 

Asked if the court which took the decision fell under the jurisdiction of the NYPD, Sammy Feliz said, “One hundred percent, yeah. The court is directly overseen by the NYPD and the funny thing to us is, and the disheartening part is, that they tell us to wait and let the process be the process and allow this trial to happen, because through the trial is where you’re able to get all of the information that you need to make a decision on the discipline of the officer [sergeant].”

He added, “And the fact that she kind of pretty much negated everything that was done in that disciplinary trial, it just shows how much of a sham this process is and how hard police commissioners will go to keep the blue wall of silence up and continue to grant police officers immunity, even while killing innocent New Yorkers.”

 

Asked where Allan Feliz lived, Sammy Feliz said, “He was also in the Washington Heights area at the time of his death. We were born and raised in the area. It happened near Norwood but he was killed by the 52nd Precinct a half a block away from Montefiore Hospital. It is definitely important. I just feel it’s extremely important for the readers of your paper to be aware of what’s happening not only in the 52nd Precinct, where police officers continue to kill innocent New Yorkers and in a very disrespectful way, but also not being held accountable for those wrongdoings.”

 

[Feliz may have been referring to the police-involved killing of Bronxite Eric Duprey in August 2023 in the Fordham Manor section of The Bronx during an undercover drug bust, after which a protest was held in front of the 52nd Precinct in Norwood. However, the person who was found responsible for Duprey’s death on that occasion, NYPD Sgt. Erik Duran, was from the Bronx narcotics unit, not the 52nd Precinct.]

 

Sammy Feliz added, “And we want to make New Yorkers extremely aware that with the decision that the police commissioner is making, that there will be an officer out in the streets that we can, at least, help the public identify by name as Jonathan Rivera, who will be on the streets that has killed innocent New Yorkers, and will still have that opportunity to continue to harm innocent New Yorkers.”

 

Asked if Rivera was still at the 52nd Precinct, Sammy Feliz said, “I don’t believe he’s still with the 52nd Precinct. Officers, once they commit these types of misconduct, they tend to shift them around from one precinct to the next. That way they get lost within, I guess, the paperwork and the amount of officers that are deployed in each station are making it harder as well for folks to be able to identify the officers who have conducted misconduct, and not be able to oversee them, or see if they continue their misconduct, which, with this officer, we’ve been able to see that even while he had a disciplinary trial for my brother, he had five more allegations that came up for him.” The NYPD website currently shows that Rivera is currently with the Bronx Auto Larceny Unit.

 

Asked if he knew what his brother had been doing in Norwood at the time he got shot, Sammy Feliz said, “He was leaving from a friend’s house to go pick up his daughter, so he was en route coming back into Washington Heights to pick up his stepdaughter from school. While working his way back to Manhattan, he was approached by these officers in this unmarked vehicle claiming that he wasn’t wearing his seatbelt, when he had his seatbelt on the entire time.”

Sammy Feliz continued, “An interaction that should have been an honest mistake and allow Allan to continue upon his day led to, I think, it was about a two-to-three-minute interaction with these officers that ended up with Allan losing his life, and now these officers still being allowed to walk the streets, and even getting promoted since killing Allan.”

 

Asked how many children his brother had, Sammy Feliz said, “He had one child that was his, and a stepchild that was six months old at the time of his murder.” Asked what kind of work his brother did, he said, “He was getting back into welding. He did some welding while he was out of high school or recently out of high school, but he was getting back to that.”

 

He continued, “Allan was just recently incarcerated but that doesn’t speak to his character. He had already paid for his transgressions and was looking forward to turning over a new leaf and raising his son and doing amazing things and becoming a father. So, he was starting to get back into welding.”

 

Asked how the family had been dealing with his death since 2019, Sammy Feliz said, “It’s been extremely tough on us; it’s been a long treacherous journey, full of obstacles, delays, and heartaches at every which way.”

 

He continued, “So, what seemed to be an enormous victory and especially not only for us, but for the City of New York as well………I believe it was only the second time in the city’s history where there was a substantiated complaint [by the judge] to fire an officer that was validated in New York City. I believe the first one was for Eric Gardner and that was for Officer Daniel Pantaleo, and when that happened, it only took the police commissioner at the time, like, two to three weeks in order for him to fire Daniel Pantaleo.”

 

Sammy Feliz added, “And with the police commissioner, and also understanding the rarity of what we were able to achieve, we were optimistic, I would say, that things would be different. Also, how this police commissioner has stated that she was so different from all other police commissioners that have been under (New York City Mayor Eric) Adams, that she wanted to not only bring accountability, but transparency to this department.” Tisch was appointed the 48th police commissioner of New York City in November 2024, and is the fourth of the Adams administration.

 

He continued, “And with this decision that is being made now, it just shows a clear sign of regression to that statement in which the political promises that were probably made to the police commissioner outweighed the importance and the value of what firing this officer not only means to me and my family, Allan’s son, but also for our community, folks who are paying attention to what’s happening when it comes to these types of topics, and it clearly shows that we’re not walking into the right direction for transparency and accountability, and that isn’t what was promised to us upon running on their campaigns.”

 

We asked Sammy Feliz if his family or attorney had reached out to Mayor Eric Adams or any of the candidates for mayor of New York City. He replied, “Yeah, we definitely attempted to speak with Police Commissioner Tisch and reached out to Mayor Adams. I believe I had one sit-down with Mayor Adams and told him about my brother’s case.”

He continued, “He told me he was going to look into it and this was at the very beginning of him running, and he told me he’d get back to me in less than a week. I’m still waiting for Mayor Adams to give me a response on what he thinks about my brother’s case. So, this is someone who has not held up to his word and has a bunch of other stuff that is also implicating him and also tarnishing his image and being a complete distraction from what this city needs.” As reported, Sammy Feliz had rallied outside the mayor’s Bronx townhall held in February 2024.

 

He continued, “So, I believe I not only speak for myself, but for many New Yorkers when we say we are extremely desperate in order for his regime to end, because we feel like he has caused this city more harm than good. Thinking about Mayor Adams and Tisch as well, we also reached out to Tisch on Mother’s Day, on Father’s Day, on multiple occasions since this decision was placed in her hands in order to speak with us, and get our side of it, and our understanding of the case, and we’ve just been denied, because quote, unquote, the case was an open matter, and she couldn’t speak to anyone while the case was still pending.”

 

Sammy Feliz continued, “But with this decision, it just shows that it would have been an opportunity, and it wouldn’t have impacted her in the way that the conversations impacted her into saving this officer [sergeant], that she had with police [sergeants] union and the lieutenant’s union, the favors that she garnished [garnered?] there clearly outweighed what we, as a community, can provide for this police commissioner.”

 

Asked what the family’s plans were for the future, he said, “We held a rally at One Police Plaza asking for the police commissioner to make the right decision. She still has until Friday to make a final decision on this case and within that understanding, she still has an opportunity to make the right decision, and that is to fire Jonathan Rivera.”

 

He continued, “So me, my community, and my family are asking and urging her to make the right decision and to fire Jonathan Rivera. The facts are clear on why this officer should be fired. It’s a pattern of abuse not only to New Yorkers, but what he did with Allan was a complete atrocity, and shows no regard for human life. Then, he’s continued to act in that way since, and it just shows that he’s not someone who has learned their lesson, and feels like that shield is going to continue to protect him from all the wrongdoing that’s happening.”

 

Sammy Feliz continued, “This police commissioner has hung her hat on recidivism and people committing crimes over and over again. Well, recidivism exists within the NYPD, so I think she should also address recidivism within her own unit. That would be extremely helpful to eliminate killer cops like Rivera from the force. Forty allegations, two innocent New Yorkers shot multiple times, more than sufficient evidence into why this officer [sergeant] doesn’t deserve this position, and why he shouldn’t be patrolling our streets.”

 

He added, “And like I said earlier, not only for the Norwood community, but for all New Yorkers, there is a killer cop. If this decision stays as is, there will be a killer cop on the street by the name of Jonathan Rivera, so please be very cautious. Be aware that this person has murdered a New Yorker, and also knows how to cover his own self when it comes to going up to court and fighting these cases.”

 

He continued, “This officer came fully prepared since the day of killing Allan with how he was going to address things in court, so it was scripted for him. He’s been through this process. He knows exactly what to do in order to get himself out of danger and not be held accountable for harming innocent New Yorkers.”

 

Sammy Feliz concluded, “So, just a warning for all New Yorkers because we want to make our streets safer, but Commissioner Tisch prefers to protect police officers who kill New Yorkers and thus making our streets that much more dangerous by continuing to employ killer cops and giving them promotions.”

On August 20, Tisch issued her final ruling declining to go with the judge’s recommendation to fire Rivera. In response, Adrienne Adams, Ayala, and Council Member Carmen De La Rosa (C.D. 10) issued the following joint statement:

 

“NYPD Commissioner Tisch’s final ruling to disregard the trial recommendation of her department’s own deputy commissioner and judge to fire Lieutenant Rivera for killing Allan Feliz betrays public trust, which is essential to advancing true public safety. By allowing Lieutenant Rivera to remain on the force, Mayor Adams and Commissioner Tisch are facilitating the continuation of corrupt practices. There is no eliminating corruption without addressing the repeated lack of accountability for police abuses that denies families of victims and all New Yorkers an NYPD that is accountable. Our hearts are with the Feliz family, and we stand with them as they consider their next steps in pursuit of accountability for Allan, who should still be alive today.”

 

In a statement accompanying her decision not to fire Rivera on August 20, Tisch explained her reasons in detail, focusing heavily on Rivera’s testimony that he believed Barrett’s life to be in imminent danger.

 

She added in part, “For the foregoing reasons, Respondent’s shooting of Mr. Feliz was justified. I make this detemination having considered the entire record in this matter, giving due weight to the Deputy Commissioner’s findings, including her assessment of witness credibility. Ultimately, my decision, consistent with the reasoning of the Attorney General, rests on my analysis of the record and the inferences that I have drawn from that record.”

 

*Síle Moloney contributed to this story. 

 

Editor’s Note: This story has been updated to reflect the complaints against Lt. Jonathan Rivera according to the CCRB as of April 2026.