[Hellgate] 'It Makes Us Feel Like the Trial Itself Was a Sham'

In an interview, the brother of Allan Feliz talks about NYPD Commissioner Jessica Tisch's decision to keep the cop who killed Feliz on the force, even after the department's own trial judge said he should be fired.

By Jessy Edwards, Hellgate

In February, NYPD Administrative Judge Rosemarie Maldonado issued a rare ruling: She said police officer Jonathan Rivera should be fired for shooting and killing 31-year-old Allan Feliz on October 17, 2019, during a traffic stop. 

For his family, Maldonado's decision was a hopeful indication that the officer who killed Feliz might be held accountable.

But Commissioner Jessica Tisch, who began her tenure by promising to hold officers who commit misconduct accountable, didn't agree with her own department's judge. In July, she declined to fire the cop.

Earlier this month Tisch doubled down on her decision to allow Rivera, now a lieutenant, to stay on the force. Her decision came over the objections of the Civilian Complaint Review Board, which stood firmly behind Maldonado's determination that Rivera's testimony was in parts "fabricated" and "self-serving."

In her August 15 ruling, obtained by the CITY, Tisch said she made her decision in part due to a 2020 report from Attorney General Letitia James that found Rivera's claims that he was worried another officer might be hurt could not be disproven beyond reasonable doubt. "Given the timeline of what transpired, by far the most plausible reason that [Rivera] discharged his firearm was because he believed that doing so was necessary to save Officer Barrett's life," Tisch wrote. 

For Allan's brother Samy Feliz, Tisch's final decision was "devastating," he told Hell Gate.

"It would have allowed us to tell Allan's son, who is currently six years old, that we were able to get a semblance of justice for his father," he said. "Now we're unable to tell him that." 

Allan's family is now demanding the next mayor of New York City remove Tisch as NYPD commissioner: "I am calling on NYC's next mayor, whoever they may be, to ensure Jessica Tisch has no place in their administration," Allan's mom Mery Verdeja said in a statement this week. 

Hell Gate reached out to each of the mayoral candidates and asked them to respond to the family's request that the future mayor remove Tisch from her job as NYPD commissioner. Zohran Mamdani, Curtis Sliwa, and Andrew Cuomo did not respond to multiple requests for comment. Jim Walden said he reviewed the AG's report and agreed that the officer’s use of deadly force was reasonable in the circumstances. Eric Adams said he supported Tisch's "thoughtful decision": "While I was not mayor at the time of this incident, the attorney general herself investigated the case and chose not to bring charges because it was clear that Officer Rivera had a reasonable belief that his partner’s life was in danger."

In an interview with Hell Gate, Samy laid out the grief he and the rest of his family have experienced after losing his brother. As for Tisch's decision, he said, "It makes us feel like the trial itself was a sham, the five years that we fought for justice." He added, "They already had their mind made up."

This interview has been lightly edited and condensed for clarity.

Hell Gate: We found out recently that Jessica Tisch's final decision on NYPD Lieutenant Jonathan Rivera was the same as her preliminary decision: that the officer would not face any discipline, a decision that flew in the face of the recommendation of the CCRB and the NYPD's administrative judge. What was your reaction to this? 

Samy Feliz: We were completely devastated by it. This was our shot at getting this officer removed from the force and making our city safer. 

But it would have also allowed us to tell Allan's son, who is currently six years old, that we were able to get a semblance of justice for his father. That the officer responsible for his death is no longer a cop, and that the City agreed with us—at least on that point—that an officer of that caliber shouldn't be part of the NYPD. And now we're unable to tell him that. 

That's probably the most devastating part. Raising this young man and having to let him know that the city that he lives in is not one that cares for people like me and him, and that had no care about his father's life, even when it had an opportunity to provide justice.

Has all of this changed your perception of the NYPD?

Coming into this country, my mother taught me as a young boy that police officers were here to protect us. She told us, "That's who you call to rescue you."

Then growing up and experiencing police officers and how you're treated as an individual and how you're categorized, profiled, harassed, stopped, frisked for no apparent reason, just because of where you live, what you look like—that gives you a different shape of what the truth is. It kind of dissolves that illusion that you once had as a child of what policing really is in your city. 

And then continuing to grow, and experiencing something that me and my family used to see on the news, something that, even as you're reading this, might feel so distant from you, so far from home. But that bell can ring. It might not be someone directly related to you, like how it was for me, like Allan. But it might be someone who you care for, because of how often these things are happening in this country, this city as well. 

How has it affected your family since that bell rang for you?

We've been fighting for almost six years now, and probably will for countless more. Hitting the streets, not only with Eli—Allan's son—but also with my two children, Mauricio and Rose, from a very young age, I would say toddlers. 

I've marched with my children and Allan's child and my family probably more than any child should experience at those ages. I would say the kids in my family—and I include Eli as one of my kids—they've been to more rallies, marches, trips to One Police Plaza, than they've been able to even celebrate Christmas or birthdays or holidays or vacations, any of these kinds of feel-good things. 

They haven't had the opportunities to enjoy them as normal kids. But they do know their chants. They do know their rally cries. They know how to protect themselves, and are also having to experience and learn things that no child should be learning at this age. And then they're also building a perception that police aren't here to protect us, and that the police took someone who's so dear and so close to you, with no remorse.

What have you learned going through the process of trying to hold Rivera and the NYPD accountable for the killing of your brother?

You can fight for justice, you can go through their courts, their system, their judge, you can get a historic CCRB verdict recommending the officer's termination, but he still will not be fired.

We sat through that trial—right alongside NYPD Deputy Commissioner of Trials Rosemarie Maldonado—and we listened to these officers lie under oath, and Maldonado was able to discredit them and say, "Hey, this officer lied on the stand and yeah, I think he's guilty. He should be fired. He shouldn't be part of the force," validating what me and my family have fought for for so long. 

And then Police Commissioner Jessica Tisch had the opportunity to do the right thing and fire this officer for his wrongdoing, and she completely overlooked all of that, because she has the authority to pretty much do what she pleases. 

It makes us feel like the trial itself was a sham, the five years that we fought for justice. They already had their mind made up. They promoted this officer while having an open disciplinary case for the killing of Allan, showing where their allegiance lies. 

When Jessica Tisch was appointed head of the NYPD, she came in saying that she was going to be a reformer, that she was going to hold officers who committed misconduct accountable. What do you think of that now? 

It's clear that that was all a mockery. That was all part of the facade that we were sold by this person. We were thinking, yes! That she's a billionaire heiress, that she really doesn't need to really take on this position, but it's one that she chooses to take on. 

When you tell folks that you're going to do the right thing and that you can't be bought, and you're going to clean up the NYPD, well, this was your real, true opportunity to show the community and to show the people that you were going to be doing the right thing. And you chose to go against that. You chose allegiance to the NYPD and to the lieutenants' union, knowing that your job is in jeopardy, that you're just as corrupt as Adams, and that he's not going to win this next election. 

It's an election year, and your family has a call for the mayoral candidates to commit to not keeping Tisch as commissioner. Talk to me about that decision.

We're not a family that's going to sugarcoat what our demands and our expectations are, because we want the safest thing for our city. 

We want to make sure that police officers are held accountable and that we get transparency within the NYPD. To ask that shouldn't be too complex. If we can't get that, then what does it all mean? We have to ensure that we move in the right direction and are not working with folks who are counterproductive in getting the right things done for our city and the things that we deserve, like Jessica Tisch is showing us now. 

For those who are running and who have an opportunity to win, just know that we will be watching. Families like mine are going to be present and demanding that you don't hire someone like Jessica Tisch as the next police commissioner for New York City, because we're already seeing that the talk was all talk, and New York is tired of politicians taking these positions and just promising things that are never going to happen. We deserve better.

Have you heard from any of the mayoral candidates?

No, I haven't. 

There has been a lot written, including the attorney general's report, about what happened the day that your brother was killed. It's hard to read some of those details. 

I want to be completely transparent with you. I saw the video of Allan, there's body cam footage that is available. For those who are younger in age, I wouldn't recommend watching it, the images are very graphic, very sensitive.

I watched the video one time. And for someone who saw that video one time, I can recount pretty much the entire video, which is disturbing, right? This is someone who I love, someone who I held dear to me, who was a role model, a father figure to me, and just hearing my loved one scream in agony, asking for help, and just seeing him get brutalized by two officers…that was super hurtful. 

But the most hurtful thing of all was the indecency that they had with my brother. He was pulled out of the car, and they removed his pants, or they came off when they yanked him out of the car. So after they had shot him in the chest, they had removed his pants, and his genitals were out to the public. And they didn't have the decency to cover him up. They decided to cuff him and allow him to bleed out and suffer there on the ground for over 10 minutes, bleeding out, and this all happened half a block away from Montefiore Hospital in the Bronx. 

So that lack of decency, not to cover him up, in the worst type of position that you can ever be in, and not holding any threat to you, and you can't have the decency to do that, and you also don't have the mindset or the wherewithal to try to save someone's life…that just speaks to the inhumanity that the NYPD currently is operated under. 

As somebody who is a people person and who doesn't wish that upon anyone, it's disturbing to know that those who are out there to protect and serve us really have intentions that are really to harm and destroy us, and who are able to get away with these things. 

And that's a real concern that everyone who's reading this should really sit with—that we can experience this at any given time. It is not under our control, and then once it's in their control, we are in their hands, and it is in their hands that it is decided whether we make it home in one piece or not.

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