Shot that killed NYPD Det. Jonathan Diller came at 'lightning speed,' witness tells jury

A police academy classmate and unit colleague of slain NYPD Det. Jonathan Diller was overcome with emotion Wednesday as he testified in a Queens courtroom about the moment Diller was shot dead in March 2024.

Det. Derval Whyte, who graduated with Diller from the 2021 police academy class, needed almost a minute's pause in his testimony as the painful recollection of the day Diller died brought tears. At one point, Queens Assistant District Attorney John Kosinski offered a tissue so Whyte could dab his eyes.

Whyte, a five-year veteran of the NYPD who emigrated from Jamaica and became a U.S. citizen, was testifying in the first-degree murder trial of Guy Rivera, 36, of Queens. Investigators said Rivera shot and killed Diller, 31, late in the afternoon of March 25, 2024, on Mott Avenue in Far Rockaway during a car stop.

Whyte, who was assigned to the same police community response team as Diller, said the shot came unexpectedly from inside the Kia Soul Rivera was sitting in.

"Lightning speed, [it] caught Det. Diller off guard," Whyte recalled.

Body camera video captured by Whyte then showed a fatally wounded Diller, of Massapequa Park, fall to the ground unconscious amid screams and cries of other officers on the scene.

Whyte, who like Diller was working on a day off, was on the scene because minutes earlier he and another member of the unit had stopped and frisked a man they suspected had a gun. The man turned out not to be carrying a weapon and was not arrested.

After the stop, Whyte said he heard Diller, who was up the street at the Kia, get his attention to come to that vehicle. In previous testimony, Diller’s partner, Det. Sasha Rosen, said police approached the vehicle because he and Diller suspected Rivera might have a gun.

Whyte said he approached the Kia and went to the driver’s side, where Lindy Jones was behind the wheel. At that point, according to Whyte and footage from his body camera, police got the car door unlocked, Rivera started to exit the vehicle when the shot which killed Diller was fired.

Diller’s widow, Stephanie, as she had done during previous testimony, left the courtroom before the graphic video was shown to the jury.

The Whyte video also showed Rivera as he lay wounded on the street after being shot by officers. Whyte said it appeared on the video that Rivera, who suffered arm and torso wounds, was smiling as he lay on the ground.

Rivera, who had a previous state prison record, is on trial on charges of first-degree murder, second-degree murder, attempted first-degree murder for allegedly trying but failing to shoot Rosen, and various weapons charges. Jones, 43, was not charged with the Diller killing but will stand trial on weapons charges at a later date.

Defense attorneys argued in their opening statement that the bullet fired from Rivera’s .380 handgun was the result of an accidental discharge caused by Rosen when he grabbed the defendant’s hand or arm as he sat in the car with Jones.

Whyte, who wasn’t on the same side of the Kia as Rosen, testified he didn’t see Rosen grab Rivera.

The trial before Queens State Supreme Court Justice Michael Aloise was recessed until Tuesday.

Prosecutors told Aloise the prosecution expects to complete its case by next Friday.

By Anthony M. DeStefano

tony.destefano@newsday.comtonynewsday

Anthony M. DeStefano has been a reporter for Newsday since 1986 and covers law enforcement, criminal justice and legal affairs from its New York City offices.